


B561 
,E6E4 



1909 



"^d* :> 




























t> • 












k * ■ 




V^^V v- r * 4 * 6 ^ V^VT 









- *+# 



















%. 











." 4*' * 










Thoughts 






M. A. 




M 



ARCUS AUKELIUS 

From Portrait Bust in possession of the editor 



ZOUSAUA 21 



M 



Noble Thoughts 

of 

The World's Greatest Minds 

Edited by Dana Estes, M, A, 




"They are never alone who are 
accompanied by noble thoughts." 
— Sir Philip Sidney. 



Noble Thoughts of 

Gpictetus 



Selected and Edited by- 
Dana Estes, M. A* 



With essay on The Discourses by Canon 

P. W. Farrar f D. D„ author of 

"Seekers After God" 




Boston & Dana Estes & 
Company & Publishers 



"■ 






EgE : 



Copyright, igog 
By Dana Estes & Company 



All rights reserved 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

1 WASHINGTON 



COLONIAL PRESS 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &> Co. 

Boston, U.S.A. 



INTRODUCTION 

The Noble Thoughts of Epictetus, as selected 
for this series, consist of the " Encheiridion " or 
44 Manual," and fragments preserved in the works 
of other authors* These contain in a concise 
form practically all of the truths of his philoso- 
phy, which have been preserved in such of the 
Discourses as reported by his Disciple Arrianus, 
as have come down to us* The Stoical teachings 
of this philosopher as embodied in this " Manual " 
have influenced the life and characters of many 
of the world's finest minds, both Pagan and 
Christian* They were the guiding star of Marcus 
Aurelius, who was beyond doubt the most humane 
and enlightened ruler of ancient times* He says 
in his " Meditations," " From Rusticus I received 
the impression on my character that required 
improvement and discipline, and I am indebted 
to him for being acquainted with the 4 Discourses 
of Epictetus*' " 

That the " Manual " was highly esteemed by 
the Early Fathers of the Christian Church is 
evidenced by many references to it, and especially 
to the fact that Saint Nilus made it the rule of 
life of the Christian Anchorites of Mount Sinai* 
It was still read in the thirteenth century in the 

ix 



Benedictine convents* The " Manual " was to 
antiquity what the " Imitation of Christ " by 
Thomas a Kempis has been to later times* It 
is a clear, succinct* and practical statement of 
common daily duties and the principles on which 
they rest* Its popularity is wholly due to the 
moral elevation and nobility of the thoughts 
which it expressed* 

Canon Farrar in his " Seekers after God " says 
" It is interesting to know that the * Manual 9 
was widely accepted among Christians no less 
than among Pagans* and that as late as the fifth 
century* paraphrases were written of it for 
Christian use. No systematic treatise of morals so 
simply beautiful was ever composed, and to this 
day the Christian may study it. not with interest 
only* but real advantage* It is like the voice of 
the Sybil, which uttering things simple and un- 
adorned, by God's grace reacheth through innu- 
merable years*" 

The word " Epictetus " means " acquired," but 
no other name has been handed down for him* 
He was, according to the received account, born 
at Hierapolis, a town in the southwest quarter of 
Phrygia* His life extends between a date slightly 
anterior and a date slightly posterior to the second 
half of the first century A* D* While young, he 
was one of the slaves of Epaphroditus, a f reedman 
and courtier of the emperor Nero; and while in that 
position, he managed to attend the lectures of 
Musonius Rufus, an important and esteemed 
teacher of the Stoical system during the reigns 
of Nero and Vespasian* Epictetus was lame- — 
whether from birth or in consequence of an 



accident or of his owner's cruelty is unknown; 
he was also of weakly health* That he was a free 
man in the latter part of his life is evident, but 
the means by which his liberty was obtained are 
unrecorded* In the days of Domitian he was one 
of the recognized votaries and perhaps professors 
of philosophy; and in the year Ninety A* D*, 
when that emperor, irritated by the support and 
encouragement which the opposition to his ty- 
ranny found amongst the adherents of Stoicism, 
issued an edict to all philosophers to quit Rome, 
Epictetus was amongst those who withdrew into 
the provinces* For the rest of his life he settled at 
Nicopolis, a town of southern Epirus, not far 
from the scene of the battle of Actium* There 
for several years he lived, and taught by close, ear- 
nest personal address and conversation* Accord- 
ing to some authorities he lived into the time of 
Hadrian; he himself mentions the coinage of the 
emperor Trojan. His contemporaries and the 
next generation held his character and teaching 
in high honor* According to Lucian, the earthen- 
ware lamp which had belonged to the sage was 
bought by an enthusiastic relic-hunter for three 
thousand drachmas* He was never married* 
He wrote nothing; but much of his teaching was 
taken down with affectionate care by his pupil 
Flavius Arrianus, the historian of Alexander the 
Great, and is preserved in two treatises, of the 
larger of which, called the " Discourses of Epic- 
tetus," four books are still extant. The other 
treatise is a shorter and has been a more popular 
work, the "Manual" or " Encheiridion*" It 
contains in an aphoristic form the main doctrines 

xi 



of the longer work* There exists a tolerably 
extensive commentary on the " Manual " by 
Simplicius* 

The philosophy of Epictetus is stamped with 
an intensely practical character and exhibits 
a high idealistic type of morality. He is an earnest, 
sometimes stern and sometimes pathetic preacher 
of righteousness, who despises the mere graces 
of a literary and rhetorical lecturer, and the sub- 
tleties of an abstruse logic* He has no patience 
with mere antiquarian study of the Stoical writers* 
The problem of how life is to be carried out well 
is the one question which throws all other in- 
quiries into the shade* " When you enter the 
school of the philosopher, ye enter the room of 
a surgeon; and as ye are not whole when ye come 
in, ye cannot leave it with a smile, but with pain/' 
True education lies in learning to wish things 
to be as they actually are: it lies in learning to . 
distinguish what is our own, from what does not 
belong to us* But there is only one thing which 
is fully our own, — that is, our will or purpose* 
God, acting as a good King and a true Father, has 
given us a will which cannot be restrained, com- 
pelled, or thwarted; He has put it wholly in our 
own power, so that even He Himself has no 
power to check or control it* Nothing external, 
neither death nor exile nor pain nor any such 
thing, is ever the cause of our acting or not act- 
ing; the sole true cause lies in our opinions and 
judgments* Nothing can ever force us to act 
against our will; if we are conquered, it is be- 
cause we have willed to be conquered* And thus, 
although we are not responsible for the ideas 

xii 



that present themselves to our consciousness, 
we are absolutely and without any modification 
responsible for the way in which we use them* 
Nothing is oars besides oar will. And the divine 
law which bids as keep fast what is oar own 
forbids as to make any claim to what is not oars; 
and while enjoining as to make ase of whatever 
is given to as, it bids as not long after what has 
not been given. " Two maxims," he says t 
94 we mast ever bear in mind, — that apart from 
the will there is nothing either good or bad, and 
that we mast not try to anticipate or direct events, 
bat merely accept them with intelligence." "We 
mast, in short, resign oarselves to whatever fate 
and fortune bring to as, believing, as the first 
article of oar creed, that there is a God, Whose 
thought directs the universe, and that not merely 
in our acts, but even in our thoughts and plans, 
we cannot escape His eye. In the world, accord- 
ing to Epictetus, the true position of man is that 
of member of a great system, which comprehends 
God and men. Each human being is thus a citi- 
zen of two cities. He is in the first instance a 
citizen of his own nation or commonwealth in 
a corner of the world; but he is also a member of 
the great city of gods and men, whereof the city 
political is only a copy in miniature. All men are 
the sons of God, and kindred in nature with the 
Divinity. For man though a member in the 
system of the world is more than a merely sub- 
servient or instrumental part, he has also within 
him a principle which can guide and understand 
the movement of all the members; he can enter 
into the method of divine administration, and 

xiii 



thus can learn — and it is the acme of his learning 
— the will of God, which is the will of nature* 
Man, said the Stoic, is a rational animal; and in 
virtue of that rationality he is neither less nor 
worse than the gods, for the magnitude of reason 
is estimated not by length nor by height, but 
by its judgments* Each man has within him a 
guardian spirit, a god within him, who never 
sleeps; so that even in darkness and solitude we 
are never alone, because God is within, and our 
guardian spirit* The body which accompanies 
us is not strictly speaking ours; it is a poor dead 
thing, which belongs to the things outside us* 
But by reason we are the masters of those ideas 
and appearances which present themselves from 
without; we can combine them, and systematize, 
and can set up in ourselves an order of ideas 
corresponding with the order of nature* 

The natural instinct of animated life, to which 
man also is originally subject, is self-preservation 
and self-interest* But men are so ordered and 
constituted that the individual cannot secure his 
own interests unless he contribute to the common 
welfare* We are bound up by the law of nature 
with the whole fabric of the world* The aim 
of the philosopher therefore is to reach the position 
of a mind which embraces the whole world in its 
view, — to grow into the mind of God and to 
make the will of nature our own* Such a sage 
agrees in his thought with God; he no longer 
blames either God or man; he fails of nothing 
which he purposes and falls in within no mis- 
fortune unprepared; he indulges neither in anger 
nor envy nor jealousy; he is leaving manhood 

xiv 



for godhead, and in his dead body his thoughts 
are concerned about his fellowship with God* 

The historical models to which Epictetus re- 
verts are Diogenes and Socrates* But he fre- 
quently describes an ideal character of a mission- 
ary sage* the perfect Stoic — or* as he calls him. 
the Cynic* " The Cynic," he says, " is a mes- 
senger sent from God to men to show them the 
error of their ways about good and evil, and 
how they seek good and evil where they cannot 
be found*" This missionary has neither country 
nor home nor land nor slave; his bed is the ground; 
he is without wife or child; his only mansion is 
the earth and sky and a shabby cloak* It must 
be that he suffers stripes; and being beaten, he 
must love those who beat him as if he were a 
father or a brother* He must be perfectly unem- 
barrassed in the service of God, not bound by the 
common ties of life, nor entangled by relationships, 
which if he transgresses he will lose the character 
of a man of honor, while if he upholds them he will 
cease to be the messenger, watchman, and herald 
of the gods* The perfect man thus described 
will not be angry with the wrong-doer; he will 
only pity his erring brother; for anger in such a 
case would only betray that he too thought the 
wrong-doer gained a substantial blessing by his 
wrongful act, instead of being, as he is, utterly 
ruined* 



xv 



THE 




DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS 

BY CANON FREDERICK W. FARRAR, D.D. 

Discourses of Epictetus, as 
originally published by Ar rian, 
contained eight books, of which 
only four have come down to 
us* They are in many respects 
the most valuable expression of 
his views* There is something 
slightly repellent in the stern concision, the 
" imperious brevity/' of the Manual* In the 
Manual, says M* Martha, ^Moralistes sous 
f Empire," "the reason of the Stoic pro- 
claims its laws with an impassibility which 
is little human; it imposes silence on all 
the passions, even the most respectable; it 
glories in waging against them an internecine 
war, and seems even to wish to repress the most 
legitimate impulses of generous sensibility* 
In reading these rigorous maxims one might 
be tempted to believe that this legislator of 

1 



morality is a man without a heart, and, if we 
were not touched by the original sincerity of 
the language, one would only see in this lapi- 
dary style the conventional precepts of a 
chimerical system or the aspirations of an im- 
possible perfection." The Discourses are more 
illustrative, more argumentative, more diffuse* 
more human* In reading them one feels one- 
self face to face with a human being, not with 
the marble statue of the ideal wise man* The 
style, indeed, is simple, but its "athletic nu- 
dity" is well suited to this militant morality; 
its picturesque and incisive character, its 
vigorous metaphors, its vulgar expressions; 
its absence of all conventional elegance, dis- 
play a certain "plebeian originality" which 
gives them an almost autobiographic charm* 
With trenchant logic and intrepid conviction 
44 he wrestles with the passions, questions them, 
makes them answer, and confounds them in 
a few words which are often sublime* This 
Socrates without grace does not amuse us by 
making his adversary fall into the long en- 
tanglement of a captious dialogue, but he 
rudely seizes and often finishes him with two 
blows* It is like the eloquence of Phocion, 
which Demosthenes compares to an axe which 
is lifted and falls*" 

Epictetus, like Seneca, is a preacher; a 
preacher with less wealth of genius, less elo- 
quence of expression, less width of culture, but 

2 



with far more bravery, clearness, consistency, 
and grasp of his subject* His doctrine and his 
life were singularly homogeneous, and his views 
admit of brief expression, for they are not 
weakened by any fluctuations, or chequered 
with any lights and shades. The Discourses 
differ from the Manual only in their manner, 
their frequent anecdotes, their pointed illus- 
trations, and their vivid interlocutory form. 
The remark of Pascal, that Epictetus knew 
the grandeur of the human heart, but did not 
know its weakness, applies to the Manual but can 
hardly be maintained when we judge him by 
some of the answers which he gave to those 
who came to seek for his consolation or advice. 
The Discourses are not systematic in their 
character, and, even if they were* the loss of 
the last four books would prevent us from 
working out their system with any complete- 
ness. Our sketch of the Manual will already 
have put the reader in possession of the main 
principles and ideas of Epictetus; with the 
mental and physical philosophy of the schools 
he did not in any way concern himself J it was 
his aim to be a moral preacher, to ennoble the 
lives of men and touch their hearts. He neither 
plagiarised nor invented, but he gave to Stoi- 
cism a practical reality. All that remains for 
us to do is to choose from the Discourses some 
of his most characteristic views, and the modes 
by which he brought them home to his hearers. 

3 



It was one of the most essential peculiarities 
of Stoicism to aim at absolute independence, 
or self-dependence* Now, as the weaknesses 
and servilities of men arise most frequently 
from their desire for superfluities, the true man 
must absolutely get rid of any such desire* 
He must increase his wealth by moderating 
his wishes; he must despise all the luxuries 
for which men long, and he must greatly di- 
minish the number of supposed necessaries* 
We have already seen some of the arguments 
which point in this direction, and we may add 
another from the third book of Discourses* 

A certain magnificent orator, who was going 
to Rome on a lawsuit, had called on Epictetus* 
The philosopher threw cold water on his visit, 
because he did not believe in his sincerity* 
" You will get no more from me," he said, 
44 than you would get from any cobbler or 
greengrocer, for you have only come because 
it happened to be convenient, and you will 
only criticise my style, not really wishing to 
learn principles*" " Well, but," answered the 
orator, " if I attend to that sort of thing, I 
shall be a mere pauper like you, with no plate, 
or equipage, or land*" * I don't want such 
things," replied Epictetus; "and, besides* 
you are poorer than I am, after all*" u Why, 
how so? " " You have no constancy, no unan- 
imity with nature, no freedom from pertur- 
bations. Patron or no patron, what care I? 

4 



You do care* I am richer than you. I don't 
care what Caesar thinks of me. I flatter no 
one* This is what I have instead of your silver 
and gold plate* You have silver vessels, but 
earthenware reasons, principles, appetites. My 
mind to me a kingdom is. and it furnishes me 
abundant and happy occupation in lieu of your 
restless idleness. All your possessions seem 
small to you. mine seem great to me. Your 
desire is insatiate, mine is satisfied/' The 
comparison with which he ends the discussion 
is very remarkable. I once had the privilege 
of hearing Sir William Hooker explain to the 
late Queen Adelaide the contents of the Kew 
Museum. Among them was a cocoa-nut with 
a hole in it. and Sir William explained to the 
Queen that in certain parts of India, when the 
natives want to catch the monkeys they make 
holes in cocoa-nuts, and fill them with sugar. 
The monkeys thrust in their hands and fill 
them with sugar; the aperture is too small to 
draw the paws out again when thus increased 
in size; the monkeys have not the sense to 
loose their hold of the sugar, and so they are 
caught. This little anecdote will enable the 
reader to relish the illustration of Epictetus. 
44 When little boys thrust their hands into 
narrow-mouthed jars full of figs and almonds, 
when they have filled their hands they cannot 
draw them out again, and so begin to howl. 
Let go a few of the figs and almonds, and you'll 

5 



get your hand out* And so you, let go your 
desires* Don't desire many things, and you'll 
get what you do desire/' " Blessed is he that 
expecteth nothing, for he shall not be dis- 
appointed! " 

Another of the constant precepts of Epictetus 
is that we should aim high; we are not to be 
common threads in the woof of life, but like 
the laticlave on the robe of a senator, the broad 
purple stripe which gave lustre and beauty to 
the whole* But how are we to know that we 
are qualified for this high function? How does 
the bull know, when the lion approaches, that 
it is his place to expose himself for all the herd? 
If we have high powers we shall soon be con- 
scious of them, and if we have them not we 
may gradually acquire them* Nothing great 
is produced at once, — the vine must blossom, 
and bear fruit, and ripen, before we have the 
purple clusters of the grape, — " first the blade, 
then the ear, after that the full corn in the 
ear/' 

But whence are we to derive this high sense 
of duty and possible eminence? Why, if Caesar 
had adopted you, would you not show your 
proud sense of ennoblement in haughty looks; 
how is it that you are not proud of being sons 
of God? You have, indeed, a body, by virtue 
of which many men sink into close kinship with 
pernicious wolves, and savage lions, and crafty 
foxes, destroying the rational within them* 

6 



and so becoming greedy cattle or mischievous 
vermin; bat above and beyond this, "If," 
says Epictetus, " a man have once been 
worthily interpenetrated with the belief that 
we all have been in some special manner born of 
God, and that God is the Father of gods and men, 
I think that he will never have any ignoble, 
any humble thoughts about himself*" Our 
own great Milton has hardly expressed this 
high truth more nobly when he says, that " He 
that holds himself in reverence and due esteem, 
both for the dignity of God's image upon him, 
and for the price of his redemption, which he 
thinks is visibly marked upon his forehead, 
accounts himself both a fit person to do the 
noblest and godliest deeds, and much better 
worth than to deject and defile, with such a 
debasement and pollution as sin is, himself so 
highly ransomed, and ennobled to a new friend- 
ship and filial relation with God/' 

44 And how are we to know that we have made 
progress? We may know it if our own wills are 
bent to live in conformity with nature; if we be 
noble, free, faithful, humble; if desiring noth- 
ing, and shunning nothing which lies beyond 
our power, we sit loose to all earthly interests; 
if our lives are under the distinct governance 
of immutable and noble laws* 

44 But shall we not meet with troubles in life? 
Yes, undoubtedly; and are there none at Olym- 
pia? Are you not burnt with heat, and pressed 



for room, and wetted with showers when it 
rains? Is there not more than enough clamor, 
and shouting, and other troubles? Yet I sup- 
pose you tolerate and endure all these when 
you balance them against the magnificence of the 
spectacle? And, come now, have you not re- 
ceived powers wherewith to bear whatever 
occurs? Have you not received magnanimity, 
courage, fortitude? And why, if I am mag- 
nanimous, should I care for anything that can 
possibly happen? what shall alarm or trouble 
me, or seem painful? Shall I not use the faculty 
for the ends for which it was granted me, or 
shall I grieve and groan at all the accidents of 
life? On the contrary, these troubles and diffi- 
culties are strong antagonists pitted against 
us, and we may conquer them, if we will, in 
the Olympic game of life* 

"But if life and its burdens become abso- 
lutely intolerable, may we not go back to God, 
from whom we came? may we not show thieves 
and robbers, and tyrants who claim power over 
us by means of our bodies and possessions, 
that they have no power? In a word, may we 
not commit suicide? " We know how Shake- 
speare treats this question: — 

44 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely. 
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 
The insolence of office* and the spurns 
Which patient merit of the unworthy takes, 
When he himself might his quietus make 

8 



With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear , 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 
But that the dread of something after death, 
The undiscovered country from whose bourne 
No traveller returns, puzzles the will x 
And makes us rather bear those ills we have 
Than fly to others that we know not of ? * 

But Epictetus had no materials for such an 
answer* I do not remember a single passage 
in which he refers to immortality or the life to 
come, and it is therefore probable either that 
he did not believe in it at all, or that he put 
it aside as one of those things which are out of 
our own power* Yet his answer is not that 
glorification of suicide which we find through- 
out the tragedies of Seneca, and which was one 
of the commonplaces of Stoicism, "My 
friends," he says, " wait God's good time till 
He gives you the signal, and dismisses you from 
this service; then dismiss yourself to go to 
Him, But for the present restrain yourselves, 
inhabiting the spot which He has at present 
assigned you. For, after all, this time of your 
sojourn here is short, and easy for those who 
are thus disposed; for what tyrant, or thief, 
or judgment-halls, are objects of dread to those 
who thus absolutely disesteem the body and 
its belongings? Stay, then, and do not depart 
without due cause," 

It will be seen that Epictetus permits suicide 
without extolling it, for in another place he 
says: u What is pain? A mere ugly mask; turn 

9 



it, and see that it is so* This little flesh of ours 
is acted on roughly, and then again smoothly* 
If it is not for your interest to bear it, the door 
is open; if it is for your interest — endure* It 
is right that under all circumstances the 
door should be open, since so men end all 
trouble/' 

This power of endurance is completely the 
keynote of the Stoical view of life, and the 
method of attaining to it, by practising con- 
tempt for all external accidents, is constantly 
inculcated* I have already told the anecdote 
about Agrippinus by which Epictetus admir- 
ingly shows that no extreme of necessary mis- 
fortune could wring from the true Stoic a single 
expression of indignation or of sorrow. 

The inevitable, then, in the view of the 
Stoics, comes from God, and it is our duty not 
to murmur against it* But this being the guid- 
ing conception as regards ourselves, how are 
we to treat others? Here, too, our duties spring 
directly from our relation to God* It is that 
relation which makes us reverence ourselves, 
it is that which should make us honor others* 
44 Slave! will you not bear with your own 
brother, who has God for his father no less than 
you? But they are wicked, perhaps — thieves 
and murderers. Be it so, then they deserve all 
the more pity* You don't exterminate the 
blind or deaf because of their misfortunes, but 
you pity them: and how much more to be pitied 

JO 



are wicked men? Don't execrate them* Are 
you yourself so very wise?" 

Nor are the precepts of Epictetus all abstract 
principles; he often pauses to give definite 
rules of conduct and practice* Nothing, for 
instance, can exceed the wisdom with which 
he speaks of habits, and the best means of ac- 
quiring good habits and conquering evil ones* 
He points out that we are creatures of habit; 
that every single act is a definite grain in the 
sand-multitude of influences which make up 
our daily life; that each time we are angry or 
evil-inclined we are adding fuel to a fire, and 
virulence to the seeds of a disease* A fever 
may be cured, but it leaves the health weaker; 
and so also it is with the diseases of the soul* 
They leave their mark behind them* 

Take the instance of anger* u Do you wish 
not to be passionate? do not then cherish the 
habit within you, and do not add any stimu- 
lant thereto* Be calm at first, and then num- 
ber the days in which you have not been in a 
rage* I used to be angry every day, now it is 
only every other day, then every third, then 
every fourth day* But should you have passed 
even thirty days without a relapse, then offer 
a sacrifice to God* For the habit is first loos- 
ened, then utterly eradicated* ' I did not 
yield to vexation to-day, nor the next day, nor 
so on for two or three months, but I restrained 
myself under various provocations*' Be sure* 

H 



if you can say that, that it will soon be all right 
with you/' 

But how is one to do all this? that is the great 
question, and Epictetus is quite ready to give 
you the best answer he can* We have, for in- 
stance, already quoted one passage in which 
. (tinlike the majority of Pagan moralists) he 
shows that he has thoroughly mastered the 
ethical importance of controlling even the 
thought of wickedness* Another anecdote about 
Agrippinus will further illustrate the same doc- 
trine* It was the wicked practice of Nero to 
make noble Romans appear on the stage or 
in gladiatorial shows, in order that he might 
thus seem to have their sanction for his own 
degrading displays* On one occasion Florus, 
who was doubting whether or not he should 
obey the mandate, consulted Agrippinus on 
the subject* " Go by all means," replied Agrip- 
pinus. " But why don't you go, then? " asked 
Florus* u Because," said Agrippinus, " I do 
not deliberate about it*" He implied by this 
answer that to hesitate is to yield, to deliberate 
is to be lost; we must act always on principles, 
we must never pause to calculate consequences* 
" But if I don't go," objected Florus, " I shall 
have my head cut off*" " Well, then, go, but 
I won't*" u Why won't you go? " u Because 
I do not care to be of a piece with the common 
thread of life; I like to be the purple sewn upon 
it." 



And if we want a due motive for such lofty 
choice Epictetus will supply it* "Wish," he 
says, " to win the suffrages of your own inward 
approval, wish to appear beautiful to God* De- 
sire to be pure with your own pure self, and 
with God* And when any evil fancy assails 
you, Plato says, 4 Go to the rites of expiation, 
go as a suppliant to the temples of the gods, the 
averters of evil/ But it will be enough should 
you even rise and depart to the society of the 
noble and the good, to live according to their 
examples, whether you have any such friend 
among the living or among the dead* Go to 
Socrates, and gaze on his utter mastery over 
temptation and passion; consider how glorious 
was the conscious victory over himself! What 
an Olympic triumph! How near does it place 
him to Hercules himself! So that, by heaven, 
one might justly salute him, * Hail, marvellous 
conqueror, who hast conquered, not these mis- 
erable boxers and athletes, nor these gladiators 
who resemble them/ And should you thus be 
accustomed to train yourself, you will see what 
shoulders you will get, what nerves, what 
sinews, instead of mere babblements, and noth- 
ing more* This is the true athlete, the man who 
trains himself to deal with such semblances as 
these* Great is the struggle, divine the deed; 
it is for kingdom, for freedom^ for tranquillity, 
for peace* Think on God; call upon Him as 
thine aid and champion, as sailors call on the 

13 



Great Twin Brethren in the storm* And in- 
deed what storm is greater than that which 
rises from powerful semblances that dash reason 
out of its coarse? What indeed but semblance 
is a storm itself? Since, come now, remove the 
fear of death, and bring as many thunders and 
lightnings as thou wilt, and thou shalt know 
how great is the tranquillity and calm in that 
reason which is the ruling faculty of the soul* 
But should you once be worsted, and say that 
you will conquer hereafter, and then the same 
again and again, know that thus your condition 
will be vile and weak, so that at the last you 
will not even know that you are doing wrong, 
but you will even begin to provide excuses for 
your sin; and then you will confirm the truth 
of that saying of Hesiod, — 

44 4 The man that procrastinates struggles ever with ruin/ " 

Even so! So early did a heathen moralist 
learn the solemn fact that " only this once " 
ends in * there is no harm in it." Well does Mr* 
Coventry Patmore sing: — 

" How easy to keep free from sin ; 
How hard that freedom to recall % 
For awful truth it is that men 

Forget the heaven from which they fall/' 

In another place Epictetus warns us, however; 
not to be too easily discouraged in our attempts 
after good; — and, above all, never to despair* 

14 



44 In the schools of the wrestling master, when 
a boy falls he is bidden to get up again, and to 
go on wrestling day by day till he has acquired 
strength; and we must do the same, and not 
be like those poor wretches who after one failure 
suffer themselves to be swept along as by a 
torrent* You need but will," he says, " and it 
is done; but if you relax your efforts, you will 
be ruined; for ruin and recovery are both from 
within* — And what will you gain by all this? 
You will gain modesty for impudence, purity 
for vileness, moderation for drunkenness* If 
you think there are any better ends than these, 
then by all means go on in sin, for you are be- 
yond the power of any god to save*" 

But Epictetus is particularly in earnest about 
warning us that to profess these principles and 
talk about them is one thing— to act up to 
them quite another* He draws a humorous 
picture of an inconsistent and unreal philos- 
opher, who — after eloquently proving that 
nothing is good but what pertains to virtue, 
and nothing evil but what pertains to vice f and 
that all other things are indifferent — goes 
to sea* A storm comes on, and the masts creak, 
and the philosopher screams; and an imperti- 
nent person stands by and asks in surprise, 
44 Is it then vice to suffer shipwreck? because, 
if not, it can be no evil;" a question which 
makes our philosopher so angry that he is in- 
clined to fling a log at his interlocutor's head* 

15 



But Epictetus sternly tells him that the phil- 
osopher never was one at all, except in name; 
that as he sat in the schools puffed up by hom- 
age and adulation, his innate cowardice and 
conceit were bat hidden tinder borrowed plumes; 
and that in him the name of Stoic was 
usurped* 

44 Why," he asks in another passage, " why 
do you call yourself a Stoic? Why do you de- 
ceive the multitude? Why do you act the Jew 
when you are a Greek? Don't you see on what 
terms each person is called a Jew? or a Syrian? 
or an Egyptian? And when we see some mere 
trimmer we are in the habit of saying, 4 This 
is no Jew; he is only acting the part of one; ' 
but when a man takes up the entire condition 
of a proselyte, thoroughly imbued with Jewish 
doctrines, then he both is in reality and is 
called a Jew* So we philosophers too, dipped 
in a false dye, are Jews in name, but in reality 
are something else* ♦ ♦ ♦ We call ourselves 
philosophers when we cannot even play the 
part of men, as though a man should try to 
heave the stone of Ajax who cannot lift ten 
pounds/' The passage is interesting, not only 
on its own account, but because of its curious 
similarity both with the language and with the 
sentiment of St* Paul — " He is not a Jew who 
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision 
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew 
who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that 

16 



of the heart, in the spirit and not in the 
latter? whose praise is not of men, but of 
God/' 

The best way to become a philosopher in deed 
is not by a mere study of books and knowledge 
of doctrines, but by a steady diligence of actions 
and adherence to original principles, to which 
mast be added consistency and self-controL 
44 These principles/' says Epictetus, "produce 
friendship in a house, unanimity in a city, peace 
in nations; they make a man grateful to God, 
bold under all circumstances, as though dealing 
with things alien and valueless* Now we are 
capable of writing these things, and reading 
them, and praising them when they are read, 
but we are far enough off following them* 
Hence comes it that the reproach of the Lace- 
daemonians, that they are 4 lions at home, foxes 
at Ephesus/ will also apply to us; in the school 
we are lions, out of it foxes/' 

These passages include, I think, all the most 
original, important, and characteristic con- 
ceptions which are to be found in the Discourses* 
They are most prominently illustrated in the 
long and important chapter on the Cynic phil- 
osophy* A genuine Cynic — one who was so, 
not in brutality of manners or ostentation of 
rabid eccentricity, but a Cynic in life and in 
his inmost principles — was evidently in the 
eyes of Epictetus one of the loftiest of human 
beings* He drew a sketch of his ideal conception 

17 



to one of his scholars who inquired of him upon 
the subject* 

He begins by saying that a true Cynic is so 
lofty a being that he who undertakes the pro- 
fession without due qualifications kindles against 
him the anger of heaven* He is like a scurrilous 
Thersites, claiming the imperial office of an 
Agamemnon* " If you think/' he tells the 
young student, u that you can be a Cynic 
merely by wearing an old cloak, and sleeping 
on a hard bed, and using a wallet and staff, and 
begging, and rebuking every one whom you see 
effeminately dressed or wearing purple, you 
don't know what you are about — get you 
gone; but if you know what a Cynic really is, 
and think yourself capable of being one, then 
consider how great a thing you are under- 
taking* 

g First as to yourself* You must be absolutely 
resigned to the will of God* You must conquer 
every passion, abrogate every desire* Your 
life must be transparently open to the view 
of God and man* Other men conceal their 
actions with houses, and doors, and darkness, 
and guards; your house, your door, your dark- 
ness, must be a sense of holy shame* You 
must conceal nothing; you must have nothing 
to conceal* You must be known as the spy 
and messenger of God among mankind* 

44 You must teach men that happiness is not 
there, where in their blindness and misery they 

18 



seek it* It is not in strength, for Myro and 
Ofellius were not happy: not in wealth, for 
Croesus was not happy: not in power, for the 
Consuls are not happy: not in all these to- 
gether, for Nero, and Sardanapalus, and Aga- 
memnon sighed, and wept, and tore their 
hair, and were the slaves of circumstances and 
the dupes of semblances* It lies in yourselves: 
in true freedom, in the absence or conquest of 
every ignoble fear; in perfect self-government; 
in a power of contentment and peace, and the 
4 even flow of life 9 amid poverty, exile, disease, 
and the very valley of the shadow of death. 
Can you face this Olympic contest? Are your 
thews and sinews strong enough? Can you face 
the fact that those who are defeated are also 
disgraced and whipped? 

" Only by God's aid can you attain to this* 
Only by His aid can you be beaten like an ass, 
and yet love those who beat you, preserving 
an unshaken unanimity in the midst of circum- 
stances which to other men would cause trouble, 
and grief, and disappointment, and despair. 

44 The Cynic must learn to do without friends, 
for where can he find a friend worthy of him, 
or a king worthy of sharing his moral sceptre? 
The friend of the truly noble must be as truly 
noble as himself, and such a friend the genuine 
Cynic cannot hope to find* Nor must he marry; 
marriage is right and honorable in other men, 
but its entanglements, its expenses, its dis- 

19 



tractions, would render impossible a life de- 
voted to the service of heaven. 

"Nor will he mingle in the affairs of any 
commonwealth: his commonwealth is not Ath- 
ens or Corinth, bat mankind. 

44 In person he should be strong, and robust, 
and hale, and in spite of his indigence always 
clean and attractive. Tact and intelligence, 
and a power of swift repartee, are necessary to 
him. His conscience must be clear as the sun. 
He must sleep purely, and wake still more 
purely. To abuse and insult he must be as 
insensible as a stone, and he must place all 
fears and desires beneath his feet. To be a 
Cynic is to be this: before you attempt it de- 
liberate well, and see whether by the help of 
God you are capable of achieving it." 

I have given a sketch of the doctrines of this 
lofty chapter, but fully to enjoy its morality 
and eloquence the reader should study it entire, 
and observe its generous impatience, its noble 
ardour, its vivid interrogations, " in which," 
says M. Martha, " one feels as it were a frenzy of 
virtue and of piety, and in which the plenitude 
of a great heart tumultuously precipitates a 
torrent of holy thoughts." 

Epictetus was not a Christian. He has only 
once alluded to the Christians in his works, and 
there it is under the opprobrious title of " Gali- 
leans," who practised a kind of insensibility 
in painful circumstances and an indifference 

20 



to worldly interests which Epictetus unjustly 
sets down to u mere habit/' Unhappily it was 
not granted to these heathen philosophers in any 
true sense to know what Christianity was* 
They ignorantly thought that it was an at- 
tempt to imitate the results of philosophy, 
without having passed through the necessary 
discipline* They viewed it with suspicion, they 
treated it with injustice* And yet in Christi- 
anity, and in Christianity alone, they would 
have found an ideal which would have sur- 
passed their loftiest conceptions. Nor was it only 
an impossible ideal; it was an ideal rendered 
attainable by the impressive sanction of the 
highest authority, and one which supported 
men to bear the difficulties of life with forti- 
tude, with peacefulness, and even with an in- 
ward joy; it ennobled their faculties without 
overstraining them; it enabled them to dis- 
regard the burden of present trials, not by 
vainly attempting to deny their bitterness or 
ignore their weight, but in the high certainty 
that they are the brief and necessary prelude to 
"a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory/' 



21 



THE ENCHEIRIDION, OR MANUAL 




things some are in our power, 
and others are not* In our 
power are opinion, movement 
toward a thing, desire, aversion 
(turning from a thing); and 
in a word, whatever are our 
own acts: not in our power 
are the body, property, reputation, offices 
(magisterial power), and in a word, whatever 
are not our own acts* And the things in 
our power are by nature free, not subject 
to restraint nor hindrance: but the things 
not in our power are weak, slavish, sub- 
ject to restraint, in the power of others. 
Remember then that if you think the things 
which are by nature slavish to be free, and the 
things which are in the power of others to be 
your own, you will be hindered, you will la- 
ment, you will be disturbed, you will blame 
both gods and men: but if you think that only 
which is your own to be your own, and if you 
think that what is another's, as it really is, 
belongs to another, no man will ever compel you, 
22 



no man will hinder you, you will never blame 
any man, you will accuse no man; you will 
do nothing involuntarily (against your will)* 
no man wifl harm you, you will have no enemy, 
for you will not suffer any harm* 

If then you desire (aim at) such great things* 
remember that you must not (attempt to) lay 
hold of them with a small effort; but you must 
leave alone some things entirely, and postpone 
others for the present* But if you wish for 
these things also (such great things), and power 
(office) and wealth, perhaps you will not gain 
even these very things (power and wealth) be- 
cause you aim also at those former things 
(such great things): certainly you will fail in 
those things through which alone happiness 
and freedom are secured* Straightway then 
practise saying to every harsh appearance, 
You are an appearance, and in no manner 
what you appear to be* Then examine it by 
the rules which you possess, and by this first 
and chiefly, whether it relates to the things 
which are in our power or to the things which 
are not in our power: and if it relates to any- 
thing which is not in our power, be ready to 
say* that it does not concern you* 

<[ 2* Remember that desire contains in it the 
profession (hope) of obtaining that which you 
desire; and the profession (hope) in aversion 
(turning from a thing) is that you will not fall 
into that which you attempt to avoid: and he 

23 



who fails in his desire is unfortunate; and he 
who falls into that which he would avoid is 
unhappy* If then you attempt to avoid only 
the things contrary to nature which are within 
your power, you will not be involved in any 
of the things which you would avoid* But if 
you attempt to avoid disease or death or pov- 
erty, you will be unhappy. Take away then 
aversion from all things which are not in our 
power, and transfer it to the things contrary 
to nature which are in our power* But destroy 
desire completely for the present* For if you 
desire anything which is not in our power, you 
must be unfortunate: but of the things in our 
power, and which it would be good to desire, 
nothing yet is before you* But employ only 
the power of moving toward an object and 
retiring from it; and these powers indeed 
only slightly and with exceptions and with 
remission* 

€t 3* In everything which pleases the soul, 
or supplies a want, or is loved, remember to 
add this to the (description, notion); what is 
the nature of each thing, beginning from the 
smallest? If you love an earthen vessel, say 
It is an earthen vessel that you love; for when 
it has been broken, you will not be disturbed* 
If you are kissing your wife or child, say that 
it is a human being whom you are kissing, for 
when the wife or child dies, you will not be 
disturbed* 
24 



€[ 4. When you are going to take in hand any 
act, remind yourself what kind of an act it is. 
If you are going to bathe, place before yourself 
what happens in the bath: some splashing the 
water, others pushing against one another, 
others abusing one another, and some steal- 
ing: and thus with more safety you will 
undertake the matter, if you say to yourself, 
I now intend to bathe, and to maintain my 
will in a manner conformable to nature* And 
so you will do in every act: for thus if any 
hindrance to bathing shall happen, let this 
thought be ready; it was not this only that 
I intended, but I intended also to maintain 
my will in a way conformable to nature; but 
I shall not maintain it so, if I am vexed at 
what happens. 

€[ 5* Hen are disturbed not by the things 
which happen, but by the opinions about 
the things: for example, death is nothing 
terrible, for if it were, it would have seemed 
so to Socrates; for the opinion about death, that 
it is terrible, is the terrible thing* "When then 
we are impeded or disturbed or grieved, let 
us never blame others, but ourselves, that is*. 
our opinions* It is the act of an ill-instructed 
man to blame others for his own bad condition; 
it is the act of one who has begun to be in- 
structed, to lay the blame on himself; and of 
one whose instruction is completed, neither 
to blame another, nor himself* 

25 



<[ 6* Be not elated at any advantage (excel- 
lence), which belongs to another. If a horse 
when he is elated should say, I am beautiful, 
one might endure it* But when you are elated, 
and say, I have a beautiful horse, you must 
know that you are elated at having a good 
horse* What then is your own? The use of 
appearances* Consequently when in the use 
of appearances you are conformable to nature, 
then be elated, for then you will be elated at 
something good which is your own* 

€[ 7* As on a voyage when the vessel has 
reached a port, if you go out to get water, 
it is an amusement by the way to pick up a 
shell-fish or some bulb, but your thoughts 
ought to be directed to the ship, and you ought 
to be constantly watching if the captain should 
call, and then you must throw away all those 
things, that you may not be bound and pitched 
into the ship like sheep: so in life also, if there 
be given to you instead of a little bulb and a 
shell a wife and child, there will be nothing 
to prevent (you from taking them)* But if the 
captain should call, run to the ship, and leave 
all those things without regard to them* But if 
you are old, do not even go far from the ship, 
lest when you are called you make default. 

d 8* Seek not that the things which happen 
should happen as you wish; but wish the things 
which happen to be as they are, and you will 
have a tranquil flow of life. 
26 



€1 9. Disease is an impediment to the body, 
but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses* 
Lameness is an impediment to the leg, hut 
not to the will* And add this reflection on the 
occasion of everything that happens; for you 
will find it an impediment to something else, 
but not to yourself* 

€1 JO* On the occasion of every accident 
(event) that befalls you, remember to turn 
to yourself and inquire what power you have 
for turning it to use* If you see a fair man or 
a fair woman, you will find that the power to 
resist is temperance (continence)* If labor 
(pain) be presented to you, you will find that 
it is endurance* If it be abusive words, you 
will find it to be patience* And if you have 
been thus formed to the (proper) habit, the 
appearances will not carry you along with them* 

<t U* Never say about anything, I have 
lost it, but say I have restored it* Is your 
child dead? It has been restored* Is your 
wife dead? She has been restored* Has your 
estate been taken from you? Has not then this 
also been restored? But he who has taken it 
from me is a bad man* But what is it to you, 
by whose hands the giver demanded it back? 
So long as he may allow you, take care of it 
as a thing which belongs to another, as trav- 
elers do with their inn* 

€[ 12* If you intend to improve, throw away 
such thoughts as these: if I neglect my affairs, 

27 



I shall not have the means of living: unless 
I chastise my slave, he will be bad For it is 
better to die of hunger and so to be released 
from grief and fear than to live in abundance 
with perturbation; and it is better for your 
slave to be bad than for you to be unhappy* 1 
Begin then from little things* Is the oil spilled? 
Is a little wine stolen? Say on the occasion, 
at such price is sold freedom from perturbation; 
at such price is sold tranquillity, but nothing 
is got for nothing* And when you call your 
slave, consider that it is possible that he does 
not hear; and if he does hear, that he will do 
nothing which you wish* But matters are not 
so well with him, but altogether well with you, 
that it should be in his power for you to be 
not disturbed* 2 

C[ J 3* If you would improve, submit to be 
considered without sense and foolish with re- 
spect to externals* Wish to be considered to 
know nothing: and if you shall seem to some 
to be a person of importance, distrust your- 
self* For you should know that it is not easy 
both to keep your will in a condition conform- 
able to nature and (to secure) external things: 

1 He means, Do not chastise your slave while you ate in a 
passion, lest, while you are trying to correct him, and it is very 
doubtful whether you will succeed, you fall into a vice which 
is a man's great and only calamity* — Schweig, 

2 The passage seems to mean, that your slave has not the 
power of disturbing you, because you have the power of not 
being disturbed* 

28 



btrt if a man is careful about the one, it is an 
absolute necessity that he will neglect the 
other* 

€£ 14* If yoti would have your children and 
your wife and your friends to live forever, 
you are silly; for you would have the things 
which are not in your power to be in your 
power, and the things which belong to others 
to be yours* So if you would have your slave 
to be free from faults, you are a fool; for you 
would have badness not to be badness, but 
something else* 1 But if you wish not to fail 
in your desires, you are able to do that* Prac- 
tise then this which you are able to do* He 
is the master of every man who has the power 
over the things, which another person wishes 
or does not wish, the power to confer them on 
him or to take them away* Whoever then 
wishes to be free, let him neither wish for any- 
thing nor avoid anything which depends on 
others: if he does not observe this rule, he must 
be a slave* 

d 15, Remember that in life you ought to 
behave as at a banquet* Suppose that some- 

1 When Epictetus says * you would have badness not to be 
badness," he means that " badness n is in the will of him who 
has the badness, and as you wish to subject it to your will, 
you are a fool* It is your business, as far as you can, to im- 
prove the slave : you may wish this* It is his business to obey 
your instruction : this b what he ought to wish to do ; but 
for him to will to do this, that lies in himself, not in you. — 
Schweig. 

29 



thing is carried round and is opposite to you* 
Stretch out your hand and take a portion with 
decency* Suppose that it passes by you. Do 
not detain it* Suppose that it is not yet come 
to you. Do not send your desire forward to 
it. but wait till it is opposite to you. Do so 
with respect to children, so with respect to a 
wife, so with respect to magisterial offices, so 
with respect to wealth, and you will be some 
time a worthy partner of the banquets of the 
gods. But if you take none of the things which 
are set before you, and even despise them, then 
you will be not only a fellow-banqueter with the 
gods, but also a partner with them in power. 
For by acting thus Diogenes and Heracleitus 
and those like them were deservedly divine, and 
were so called. 

€[ 16. When you see a person weeping in 
sorrow either when a child goes abroad or 
when he is dead, or when the man has lost his 
property, take care that the appearance do 
not hurry you away with it, as if he were suf- 
fering in external things. 1 But straightway 
make a distinction in your own mind, and be 
in readiness to say, it is not that which has 
happened that afflicts this man, for it does 
not afflict another, but it is the opinion about 

1 This is obscure. u It is true that the man is wretched, 
not because of the things external which have happened to 
him. But through the fact that he allows himself to be 
affected so much by external things which are placed out of 
his power." — Schweig. 

30 



this thing which afflicts the man. So far as 
words then do not be unwilling to show him 
sympathy/ and even if it happens so, to la- 
ment with him. But take care that you do 
not lament internally also. 

41 17. Remember that thou art an actor in 
a play of such a kind as the teacher (author) 
may choose; if short, of a short one; if long, 
of a long one: if he wishes you to act the part 
of a poor man, see that you act the part natu- 
rally; if the part of a lame man, of a magis- 
trate, of a private person (do the same). For this 
is your duty, to act well the part that is given 
to you; but to select the part, belongs to another. 

€£ 18. When a raven has croaked inauspi- 
ciously, let not the appearance hurry you 
away with it; but straightway make a dis- 
tinction in your mind and say, None of these 
things is signified to me, but either to my poor 
body, or to my small property, or to my repu- 
tation, or to my children or to my wife: but 
to me all significations are auspicious if I 
choose. For whatever of these things results, 
it is in my power to derive benefit from it. 

€[ 19. You can be invincible, if you enter into 
no contest in which it is not in your power to 
conquer. Take care then when you observe 

z It has been objected to Epictetus that he expresses no 
sympathy with those who suffer sorrow. But here he tells 
you to show sympathy, a thing which comforts most people. 
But it would be contrary to his teaching, if he told you to 
suffer mentally with another. 

31 



a man honored before others or possessed of 
great power or highly esteemed for any reason* 
not to suppose him happy, and be not carried 
away by the appearance* For if the nature 
of the good is in our power, neither envy nor 
jealousy will have a place in us* But you 
yourself will not wish to be a general or senator 
or consul, but a free man: and there is only 
one way to this, to despise (care not for) the 
things which are not in our power* 

C 20* Remember that it is not he who reviles 
you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is 
your opinion about these things as being in- 
sulting* When then a man irritates you, you 
must know that it is your own opinion which 
has irritated you* Therefore especially try not 
to be carried away by the appearance* For 
if you once gain time and delay, you will 
more easily master yourself* 

C^ 2 J. Let death and exile and every other 
thing which appears dreadful be daily before 
your eyes; but most of all death: and you 
will never think of anything mean nor will 
you desire anything extravagantly* 

€[ 22* If you desire philosophy, prepare your- 
self from the beginning to be ridiculed, to 
expect that many will sneer at you, and say, 
He has all at once returned to us as a philos- 
opher; and whence does he get this super- 
cilious look for us? Do you not show a super- 
cilious look; but hold on to the things which 
32 



seem to you best as one appointed by God to 
this station* And remember that if you abide 
in the same principles, these men who first 
ridiculed will afterward admire you: but if you 
shall have been overpowered by them, you 
will bring on yourself double ridicule* 

€[ 23* If it should ever happen to you to be 
turned to externals in order to please some 
person, you must know that you have lost 
your purpose in life* Be satisfied then in 
everything with being a philosopher; and if 
you wish to seem also to any person to be a 
philosopher, appear so to yourself, and you 
will be able to do this* 

€[ 24* Let not these thoughts afflict you, I 
shall live unhonored and be nobody nowhere. 
For if want of honor (artfiia) is an evil f you 
cannot be in evil through the means (fault) 
of another any more than you can be involved 
in anything base* Is it then your business to 
obtain the rank of a magistrate, or to be re- 
ceived at a banquet? By no means* How 
then can this be want of honor (dishonor)? 
And how will you be nobody nowhere, when 
you ought to be somebody in those things 
only which are in your power, in which indeed 
it is permitted to you to be a man of the great- 
est worth? But your friends will be without 
assistance! What do you mean by being with- 
out assistance? They will not receive money 
from you, nor will you make them Roman 

33 



citizens* Who then told you that these are 
among the things which are in our power, and 
not in the power of others? And who can give 
to another what he has not himself? Acquire 
money then, your friends say, that we also 
may have something* If I can acquire money 
and also keep myself modest, and faithful and 
magnanimous, point out the way, and I will 
acquire it* But if you ask me to lose the things 
which are good and my own, in order that you 
may gain the things which are not good, see 
how unfair and silly you are* Besides, which 
would you rather have, money or a faithful and 
modest friend? For this end then rather help 
me to be such a man, and do not ask me to do 
this by which I shall lose that character* But 
my country, you say, as far as it depends on 
me, will be without my help* I ask again, what 
help do you mean? It will not have porticoes 
or baths through you* And what does this 
mean? For it is not furnished with shoes by 
means of a smith, nor with arms by means of 
a shoemaker* But it is enough if every man 
fully discharges the work that is his own: and 
if you provided it with another citizen faithful 
and modest, would you not be useful to it? 
Yes* Then you also cannot be useless to it* 
What place then, you say, shall I hold in the 
city? "Whatever you can, if you maintain at 
the same time your fidelity and modesty* But 
if when you wish to be useful to the state, you 
34 



shall lose these qualities, what profit could 
you be to it, if you were made shameless and 
faithless? 

€1 25* Has any man been preferred before 
yoti at a banquet, or in being saluted, or in being 
invited to a consultation? If these things are 
good, you ought to rejoice that he has ob- 
tained them: but if bad, be not grieved because 
you have not obtained them; and remember 
that you cannot, if you do not the same things 
in order to obtain what is not in our power, 
be considered worthy of the same (equal) 
things* For how can a man obtain an equal 
share with another when he does not visit a 
man's doors as that other man does, when he does 
not attend him when he goes abroad, as the 
other man does; when he does not praise 
(flatter) him as another does? You will be un- 
just then and insatiable, if you do not part 
with the price, in return for which those things 
are sold, and if you wish to obtain them for 
nothing* Well, what is the price of lettuces? 
An obolus perhaps* If then a man gives up 
the obolus, and receives the lettuces, and if 
you do not give up the obolus and do not ob- 
tain the lettuces, do not suppose that you 
receive less than he who has got the lettuces; 
for as he has the lettuces, so you have the 
obolus which you did not give* In the same 
way then in the other matter also you have 
not been invited to a man's feast, for you did 

35 



not give to the host the price at which the 
sapper is sold; bat he sells it for praise (flat- 
tery), he sells it for personal attention* Give 
then the price, if it is for your interest, for 
which it is sold* But if you wish both not to 
give the price and to obtain the things, you are 
insatiable and silly* Have you nothing then 
in place of the sapper? Yoa have indeed, yoa 
have the not flattering of him, whom yoa did 
not choose to flatter; yoa have the not endar- 
ing of the man when he enters the room* 

€[ 26* We may learn the wish (will) of natare 
from the things in which we do not differ from 
one another; for instance, when yoar neigh- 
bor's slave has broken his cap, or anything 
else, we are ready to say forthwith, that it is 
one of the things which happen* Yoa mast 
know then that when yoar cap also is broken, 
yoa oaght to think as yoa did when yoar 
neighbor's cap was broken* Transfer this re- 
flection to greater things also* Is another man's 
child or wife dead? There is no one who woald 
not say, this is an event incident to man* Bat 
when a man's own child or wife is dead, forth- 
with he calls oat, Wo to me, how wretched I 
am* Bat we oaght to remember how we feel 
when we hear that it has happened to others* 

€1 27* As a mark is not set ap for the parpose 
of missing the aim, so neither does the natare 
of evil exist in the world* 

€[ 28* If any person was intending to pot 
36 



your body in the power of any man whom you 
fell in with on the way, you would be vexed: 
but that you put your understanding in the 
power of any man whom you meet, so that if 
he should revile you, it is disturbed and troubled, 
are you not ashamed at this? 

€[ 29* Li every act observe the things which 
come first, and those which follow it; and so 
proceed to the act* If you do not, at first you 
will approach it with alacrity, without having 
thought of the things which will follow; but 
afterward, when certain base (ugly) things 
have shown themselves, you will be ashamed* 
A man wishes to conquer at the Olympic 
games* I also wish indeed, for it is a fine thing* 
But observe both the things which come first, 
and the things which follow; and then begin 
the act* You must do everything according 
to rule, eat according to strict orders, abstain 
from delicacies, exercise yourself as you are 
bid at appointed times, in heat, in cold, you 
must not drink cold water, nor wine as you 
choose; in a word^ you must deliver yourself 
up to the exercise master as you do to the 
physician, and then proceed to the contest* 
And sometimes you will strain the hand, put 
the ankle out of joint, swallow much dust, 
sometimes be flogged, and after all this be de- 
feated* When you have considered all this, 
if you still choose, go to the contest: if you do 
not, you will behave like children, who at one 

37 



time play at wrestlers, another time as flute 
players, again as gladiators, then as trumpeters, 
then as tragic actors: so you also will be at one 
time an athlete, at another a gladiator, then 
a rhetorician, then a philosopher, but with 
your whole soul you will be nothing at all; 
but like an ape you imitate everything that 
you see, and one thing after another pleases 
you* For you have not undertaken anything 
with consideration, nor have you surveyed it 
well; but carelessly and with cold desire* 
Thus some who have seen a philosopher and 
having heard one speak, as Euphrates speaks, 
— and who can speak as he does? — they wish 
to be philosophers themselves also* My man, 
first of all consider what kind of thing it is: 
and then examine your own nature, if you are 
able to sustain the character* Do you wish 
to be a pentathlete or a wrestler? Look at 
your arms, your thighs, examine your loins* 
For different men are formed by nature for 
different things* Do you think that if you do 
these things, you can eat in the same manner, 
drink in the same manner, and in the same 
manner loathe certain things? You must 
pass sleepless nights, endure toil, go away from 
your kinsmen, be despised by a slave, in every- 
thing have the inferior part, in honor, in office, 
in the courts of justice, in every little matter* 
Consider these things, if you would exchange 
for them, freedom from passions, liberty, tran- 
38 



quillity* If not, take care that, like little 
children, you be not now a philosopher, then 
a servant of the publicani, then a rhetorician, 
then a procurator (manager) for Caesar* These 
things are not consistent* You must be one 
man, either good or bad* You must either 
cultivate your own ruling faculty, or external 
things; you must either exercise your skill on 
internal things or on external things; that is, 
you must either maintain the position of a 
philosopher or that of a common person* 

€[ 30* Duties are universally measured by 
relations* Is a man a father? The precept is 
to take care of him, to yield to him in all things, 
to submit when he is reproachful, when he 
inflicts blows* But suppose that he is a bad 
father* Were you then by nature made akin 
to a good father? No; but to a father* Does 
a brother wrong you? Maintain then your own 
position toward him, and do not examine what 
he is doing, but what you must do that your 
will shall be conformable to nature* For an- 
other will not damage you, unless you choose: 
but you will be damaged then when you shall 
think that you are damaged* In this way then 
you will discover your duty from the relation 
of a neighbor, from that of a citizen, from that 
of a general, if you are accustomed to contem- 
plate the relations* 

C 31* As to piety toward the Gods you must 
know that this is the chief thing, to have right 

39 



opinions about them, to think that they exist, 
and that they administer the All well and 
justly; and you must fix yourself in this prin- 
ciple (duty), to obey them, and yield to them 
in everything which happens, and voluntarily 
to follow it as being accomplished by the wisest 
intelligence* For if you do so, you will never 
either blame the Gods, nor will you accuse them 
of neglecting you* And it is not possible for 
this to be done in any other way than by with- 
drawing from the things which are not in our 
power, and by placing the good and the evil 
only in those things which are in our power* 
For if you think that any of the things which 
are not in our power is good or bad, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that, when you do not obtain 
what you wish, and when you fall into those things 
irfiich you do not wish, you will find fault and 
liate those who are the cause of them; for every 
animal is formed by nature to this, to fly from 
and to turn from the things which appear 
harmful and the things which are the cause 
of the harm, but to follow and admire the 
things which are useful and the causes of 
the useful* It is impossible then for a 
person who thinks that he is harmed to 
be delighted with that which he thinks to 
be the cause of the harm, as it is also impossible 
to be pleased with the harm itself* For this 
reason also a father is reviled by his son, when 
he gives no part to his son of the things which 
40 



are considered to be good: and it was this 
which made Polynices and Eteocles enemies, 
the opinion that royal power was a good* It 
is for this reason that the cultivator of the 
earth reviles the Gods, for this reason the sailor 
does, and the merchant, and for this reason 
those who lose their wives and their children* 
For where the useful (your interest) is, there 
also piety is* Consequently he who takes 
care to desire as he ought and to avoid as he 
ought, at the same time also cares after piety* 
But to make libations and to sacrifice and to 
offer first fruits according to the custom of 
our fathers, purely and not meanly nor care- 
lessly nor scantily nor above our ability, is a 
thing which belongs to all to do* 

€[ 32* When you have recourse to divination, 
remember that you do not know how it will 
turn out, but that you are come to inquire from 
the diviner* But of what kind it is, you know 
when you come, if indeed you are a philosopher. 
For if it is any of the things which are not in 
our power, it is absolutely necessary that it 
must be neither good nor bad* Do not then 
bring to the diviner desire or aversion (etc/cXio-tv): 
if you do, you will approach him with fear* But 
having determined in your mind that everything 
which shall turn out (result) is indifferent, and 
does not concern you, and whatever it may be, 
for it will be in your power to use it well, and 
no man will hinder this, come then with con- 

41 



fidence to the Gods as your advisers* And 
then when any advice shall have been given, 
remember whom you have taken as advisers* 
and whom you will have neglected, if you do not 
obey them* And go to divination, as Socrates 
said that you ought, about those matters in 
which all the inquiry has reference to the 
result, and in which means are not given either 
by reason nor by any other art for knowing 
the thing which is the subject of the inquiry* 
Wherefore when we ought to share a friend's 
danger or that of our country, you must not 
consult the diviner whether you ought to share 
it* For even if the diviner shall tell you that 
the signs of the victims are unlucky, it is plain 
that this is a token of death or mutilation of 
part of the body or of exile* But reason pre- 
vails that even with these risks we should share 
the dangers of our friend and of our coun- 
try* Therefore attend to the greater diviner, 
the Pythian God, who ejected from the temple 
him who did not assist his friend when he was 
being murdered* 

<[ 33* Immediately prescribe some character 
and some form to yourself, which you shall 
observe both when you are alone and when you 
meet with men* 

And let silence be the general rule, or let 
only what is necessary be said, and in few 
words* And rarely and when the occasion 
calls we shall say something; but about none 

42 



of the common subjects, nor about gladiators, 
nor horse-races, nor about athletes, nor about 
eating or drinking, which are the usual sub- 
jects; and especiafly not about men, as blaming 
them, or praising them, or comparing them* 
If then you are able, bring over by your con- 
versation the conversation of your associates 
to that which is proper; but if you should 
happen to be confined to the company of stran- 
gers, be silent* 

Let not your laughter be much, nor on many 
occasions, nor excessive* 

Refuse altogether to take an oath, if it is 
possible: if it is not, refuse as far as you are 
able* 

Avoid banquets which are given by strangers 
and by ignorant persons* But if ever there is 
occasion to join in them, let your attention 
be carefully fixed, that you slip not into the 
manners of the vulgar (the uninstructed)* For 
you must know, that if your companion be 
impure, he also who keeps company with him 
must become impure, though he should happen 
to be pure* 

Take (apply) the things which relate to the 
body as far as the bare use, as food, drink, 
clothing, house, and slaves: but exclude every- 
thing which is for show or luxury* 

As to pleasure with women, abstain as far as 
you can before marriage: but if you do indulge 
in it, do it in the way which is conformable 

43 



to custom* Do not however be disagreeable 
to those who indulge in these pleasures, or 
reprove them; and do not often boast that you 
do not indulge in them yourself* 

If a man has reported to you, that a certain 
person speaks ill of you, do not make any 
defence (answer) to what has been told you: 
but reply, The man did not know the rest of 
my faults, for he would not have mentioned 
these only* 

It is not necessary to go to the theatres often: 
but if there is ever a proper occasion for going, 
do not show yourself as being a partisan of any 
man except yourself, that is, desire only that 
to be done which is done, and for him only to 
gain the prize who gains the prize; for in this way 
you will meet with no hindrance* But abstain 
entirely from shouts and laughter at any (thing 
or person), or violent emotions* And when you 
are come away, do not talk much about what 
has passed on the stage, except about that 
which may lead to your own improvement* 
For it is plain, if you do talk much that you 
admired the spectacle (more than you ought)* 1 

Do not go to the hearing of certain persons' 
recitations nor visit them readily* 2 But if you 



1 To admire is contrary to the precept of Epietetus. 

2 Such recitations were common at Rome, when authors 
read their works and invited persons to attend* These 
recitations are often mentioned in the letters of the younger 
Pliny, 

44 



do attend, observe gravity and sedateness, and 
also avoid making yourself disagreeable* 

When you are going to meet with any person, 
and particularly one of those who are con- 
sidered to be in a superior condition^ place 
before yourself what Socrates or Zeno would 
have done in such circumstances, and you will 
have no difficulty in making a proper use of 
the occasion* 

When you are going to any of those who are 
in great power, place before yourself that you 
will not find the man at home, that you will 
be excluded, that the door will not be opened 
to you, that the man will not care about you* 
And if with all this it is your duty to visit him, 
bear what happens, and never say to yourself 
that it was not worth the trouble* For this is 
silly, and marks the character of a man who 
is offended by externals* 

In company take care not to speak much and 
excessively about your own acts or dangers: 
for as it is pleasant to you to make mention of 
your dangers, it is not so pleasant to others to 
hear what has happened to you* Take care 
also not to provoke laughter; for this is a 
slippery way toward vulgar habits, and is also 
adapted to diminish the respect of your neigh- 
bors* It is a dangerous habit also to approach 
obscene talk* When then anything of this kind 
happens, if there is a good opportunity, rebuke 
the man who has proceeded to this talk: but 

45 



if there is not an opportunity, by your silence 
at least, and blushing and expression of dis- 
satisfaction by your countenance, show plainly 
that you are displeased at such talk* 

d 34* If you have received the impression of 
any pleasure, guard yourself against being 
carried away by it; but let the thing wait for 
you, and allow yourself a certain delay on your 
own part* Then think of both times, of the 
time when you will enjoy the pleasure, and 
of the time after the enjoyment of the pleasure 
when you will repent and will reproach your- 
self* And set against these things how you 
will rejoice if you have abstained from the 
pleasure, and how you will commend yourself* 
But if it seem to you seasonable to undertake 
(do) the thing, take care that the charm of it; 
and the pleasure, and the attraction of it shall 
not conquer you: but set on the other side the 
consideration how much better it is to be 
conscious that you have gained this victory* 

€[ 35* When you have decided that a thing 
ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid 
being seen doing it, though the many shall 
form an unfavorable opinion about it* For 
if it is not right to do it*, avoid doing the thing; 
but if it is right, why are you afraid of those 
who shall find fault wrongly? 

€[ 36* As the proposition it is either day 
or it is night is of great importance for the 
disjunctive argument, but for the conjunctive 
46 



is of no value, so in a symposium (entertain- 
ment) to select the larger share is of great 
value for the body, but for the maintenance 
of the social feeling is worth nothing* "When 
then you are eating with another, remember 
to look not only to the value for the body of 
the things set before you, but also to the value 
of the behavior toward the host which ought to 
be observed* 

4[ 37* If you have assumed a character above 
your strength, you have both acted in this 
matter in an unbecoming way, and you have 
neglected that which you might have fulfilled* 

<t 38* In walking about as you take care not 
to step on a nail or to sprain your foot, so take 
care not to damage your own ruling faculty: 
and if we observe this rule in every act, we shall 
undertake the act with more security* 

€[ 39* The measure of possession (property) 
is to every man the body, as the foot is of the 
shoe* If then you stand on this rule (the de- 
mands of the body), you will maintain the 
measure: but if you pass beyond it, you must 
then of necessity be hurried as it were down 
a precipice* As also in the matter of the shoe, 
if you go beyond the (necessities of the) foot, 
the shoe is gilded, then of a purple color; then 
embroidered: for there is no limit to that which 
has once passed the true measure. 

€1 40* Women forthwith from the age of four- 
teen are called by the men mistresses (dominae). 

47 



Therefore since they see that there is nothing 
else that they can obtain, but only the power 
of lying with men, they begin to decorate 
themselves, and to place all their hopes in this* 
It is worth our while then to take care that 
they may know that they are valued (by men) 
for nothing else than appearing (being) decent 
and modest and discreet* 

€14U It is a mark of a mean capacity to 
spend much time on the things which concern 
the body, such as much exercise, much eating, 
much drinking, much easing of the body, 
much copulation* But these things should 
be done as subordinate things: and let all your 
care be directed to the mind* 

d 42* "When any person treats you ill or 
speaks ill of you, remember that he does this 
or says this because he thinks that it is his 
duty* It is not possible then for him to follow 
that which seems right to you, but that which 
seems right to himself* Accordingly if he is 
wrong in his opinion, he is the person who is 
hurt, for he is the person who has been de- 
ceived; for if a man shall suppose the true 
conjunction to be false, it is not the conjunction 
which is hindered, but the man who has been 
deceived about it* If you proceed then from 
these opinions, you will be mild in temper to 
him who reviles you: for say on each occasion, 
It seemed so to him* 

<[ 43* Everything has two handles, the one 
48 



by which it may be borne, the other by which 
it may not* If your brother acts unjustly, do 
not lay hold of the act by the handle wherein 
he acts unjustly, for this is the handle which 
cannot be borne; but lay hold of the other, that 
he is your brother, that he was nurtured with 
you, and you will lay hold of the thing by 
that handle by which it can be borne* 

€[ 44* These reasonings do not cohere: I am 
richer than you, therefore I am better than 
you; I am more eloquent than you, therefore 
I am better than you* On the contrary, these 
rather cohere, I am richer than you, there- 
fore my possessions are greater than yours: 
I am more eloquent than you, therefore my 
speech is superior to yours* But you are neither 
possession nor speech* 

€1 45* Does a man bathe quickly (early)? do 
not say that he bathes badly, but that he 
bathes quickly* Does a man drink much wine? 
do not say that he does this badly, but say that 
he drinks much* For before you shall have 
determined the opinion, how do you know 
whether he is acting wrong? Thus it will not 
happen to you to comprehend some appearances 
which are capable of being comprehended, but 
to assent to others* 

€[ 46* On no occasion call yourself a philoso- 
pher, and do not speak much among the un- 
instructed about theorems (philosophical rules, 
precepts): but do that which follows from 

49 



them* For example at a banquet do not say 
how a man ought to eat, but eat as you ought to 
eat* For remember that in this way Socrates 
also altogether avoided ostentation: persons 
used to come to him and ask to be recom- 
mended by him to philosophers, and he used 
to take them to philosophers: so easily did he 
submit to being overlooked* Accordingly if 
any conversation should arise among unin- 
structed persons about any theorem, generally 
be silent; for there is great danger that you 
will immediately vomit up what you have not 
digested* And when a man shall say to you, 
that you know nothing, and you are not vexed, 
then be sure that you have begun the work (of 
philosophy)* For even sheep do not vomit 
up the grass and show to the shepherds how 
much they have eaten; but when they have 
internally digested the pasture, they produce 
externally wool and milk* Do you also show 
not your theorems to the uninstructed, but 
show the acts which come from their digestion* 
€[ 47* When at a small cost you are supplied 
with everything for the body, do not be proud 
of this; nor, if you drink water, say on every 
occasion, I drink water* But consider first 
how much more frugal the poor are than we, 
and how much more enduring of labor* And 
if you ever wish to exercise yourself in labor 
and endurance, do it for yourself, and not for 
others: do not embrace statues* But if you 
50 



are ever very thirsty, take a draught of cold 
water, and spit it out, and tell no man* 

d 48* The condition and characteristic of an 
uninstructed person is this: he never expects 
from himself profit (advantage) nor harm, but 
from externals* The condition and character- 
istic of a philosopher is this: he expects all 
advantage and all harm from himself* The 
signs (marks) of one who is making progress 
are these: he censures no man, he praises no 
man, he blames no man, he accuses no man, 
he says nothing about himself as if he were 
somebody or knew something; when he is 
impeded at all or hindered, he blames him- 
self: if a man praises him, he ridicules the 
praiser to himself: if a man censures him, 
he makes no defence: he goes about like weak 
persons, being careful not to move any of 
the things which are placed, before they are 
firmly fixed: he removes all desire from him- 
self, and he transfers aversion to those things 
only of the things within our power which are 
contrary to nature: he employs a moderate 
movement toward everything: whether he 
is considered foolish or ignorant, he cares not: 
and in a word he watches himself as if he were 
an enemy and lying in ambush* 

€t 49* When a man is proud because he can 
understand and explain the writings of Chry- 
sippus, say to yourself, If Chrysippus had not 
written obscurely, this man would have had 

51 



nothing to be proud of* But what is it that I 
wish? To understand Nature and to follow 
it* I inquire therefore who is the interpreter: 
and when I have heard that it is Chrysippus, 
I come to him (the interpreter)* But I do not 
understand what is written* and therefore I 
seek the interpreter* And so far there is yet 
nothing to be proud of* But when I shall 
have found the interpreter, the thing that 
remains is to use the precepts (the lessons)* 
This itself is the only thing to be proud of* 
But if I shall admire the exposition* what else 
have I been made unless a grammarian instead 
of a philosopher? except in one thing, that 
I am explaining Chrysippus instead of Homer* 
When then any man says to me* Read Chry- 
sippus to me, I rather blush, when I cannot show 
my acts like to and consistent with his words* 

<[ 50* Whatever things (rules) are proposed ■ 
to you [for the conduct of life] abide by them* 
as if they were laws* as if you would be guilty 
of impiety if you transgressed any of them* 
And whatever any man shall say about you* 
do not attend to it: for this is no affair of yours* 
How long will you then still defer thinking 
yourself worthy of the best things, and in no 
matter transgressing the distinctive reason? 

1 This may mean, " what is proposed to you by phi- 
losophers," and especially in this little book. Schweighaeusef 
thinks that it may mean " what you have proposed to your- 
self : n but he is inclined to understand it simply, u what is 
proposed above, or taught above*" 

52 



Have you accepted the theorems (rules), which 
it was your duty to agree to, and have you 
agreed to them? what teacher then do you 
still expect that you defer to him the correction 
of yourself? You are no longer a youth, but 
already a full-grown man. If then you are 
negligent and slothful, and are continually 
making procrastination after procrastination, 
and proposal (intention) after proposal, and 
fixing day after day, after which you will 
attend to yourself, you will not know that 
you are not making improvement, but you 
will continue ignorant (uninstructed) both 
while you live and till you die. Immediately 
then think it right to live as a full-grown 
man, and one who is making proficiency, 
and let everything which appears to you to 
be the best be to you a law which must 
not be transgressed. And if anything laborious, 
or pleasant or glorious or inglorious be pre- 
sented to you, remember that now is the con- 
test, now are the Olympic games, and they 
cannot be deferred; and that it depends on one 
defeat and one giving way that progress is 
either lost or maintained, Socrates in this 
way became perfect, in all things improving 
himself, attending to nothing except to reason. 
But you, though you are not yet a Socrates, 
ought to live as one who wishes to be a Socrates, 
<[ 51. The first and most necessary place 
(part) in philosophy is the use of theorems 

53 



(precepts), for instance, that we must not lie: 
the second part is that of demonstrations, for 
instance, How is it proved that we ought not 
to lie: the third is that which is confirmatory 
of these two and explanatory, for example, 
How is this a demonstration? For what is 
demonstration, what is consequence, what is 
contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood? 
The third part (topic) is necessary on account 
of the second, and the second on account of 
the first; but the most necessary and that on 
which we ought to rest is the first* But we do 
the contrary* For we spend our time on the 
third topic, and all our earnestness is about it: 
but we entirely neglect the first* Therefore 
we lie; but the demonstration that we ought 
not to lie we have ready to hand* 

<[ 52* In every thing (circumstance) we should 
hold these maxims ready to hand: 

Lead me* O Zeus, and thou O Destiny, 

The way that I am bid by you to go : 

To follow I am ready* If I choose not* 

I make myself a wretch, and still must follow. 1 

But whoso nobly yields unto necessity ♦ 

We hold him wise* and skilfd in things divine* 3 

1 The first two verses are by the Stoic Cleanthes, the pupil 
of Zeno, and the teacher of Chrysippus* He was a native of 
Assus in Mysia ; and Simplicius, who wrote his commentary 
on the Encheiridion in the sixth century, A* D* t saw even at 
this late period in Assus a beautiful statue of Cleanthes erected 
by a decree of the Roman senate in honor of this excellent man* 

3 The two second verses are from a play of Euripides, a 
writer who has supplied more verses for quotation than any 
ancient tragedian* 

54 



And the third also: Crito, if so it pleases the 
Gods, so let it be; Anyttis and Melittss are able 
indeed to kill me, but they cannot harm me* 1 

1 The third quotation is from the Cfiton of Plato* Socrates 
is the speaker* The last part is from the Apology of Plato, 
and Socrates is also the speaker. The words u and the third 
also," Schweighaeuser says, have been introduced from the 
commentary of Simplicius. Simplicius concludes his com- 
mentary thus : Epictetus connects the end with the beginning, 
which reminds us of what was said in the beginning, that the 
man who places the good and the evil among the things 
which are in our power, and not in externals, will neither be 
compelled by any man nor ever injured* 



55 




FRAGMENTS OF EPICTETUS 

iSE Fragments are entitled 
" Epicteti Fragmenta maxime 
ex Ioanne Stobaeo, Antonio, 
et Maximo collecta" (ed* 
Schweig*)* There are some 
notes and emendations on the 
Fragments; and a short disser- 
tation on them by Schweighaeusen 

Nothing is known of Stobaeus nor of his time, 
except the fact that he has preserved some 
extracts of an ethical kind from the New Pla- 
tonist Hierocles, who lived about the middle 
of the fifth century A* D*; and it is therefore 
concluded that Stobaeus lived after Hierocles* 
The fragments attributed to Epictetus are 
preserved by Stobaeus in his work entitled 
'Av0o\6yiov, or Fiorilegium or Sermones* 

Antonius Monachus, a Greek monk, also made 

a Fiorilegium, entitled Melissa (the bee)* His 

date is uncertain, but it was certainly much 

later than the time of Stobaeus. 

Maximus, also named the monk, and rever- 

56 



enced as a saint, is said to have been a native 
of Constantinople, and born about A* D. 580* 

Some of the Fragments contained in the 
edition of Schweighaeuser are certainly not 
from Epictetus* Many of the fragments are 
obscure; but they are translated as accurately 
as I can translate them, and the reader must 
give to them such meaning as he can* 

€[ U The life which is implicated with fortune 
(depends on fortune) is like a winter torrent: 
for it is turbulent, and full of mud, and difficult 
to cross, and tyrannical, and noisy, and of 
short duration* 

d 2* A soul which is conversant with virtue 
is like an ever-flowing source, for it is pure and 
tranquil and potable and sweet and communi- 
cative (social), and rich and harmless and free 
from mischief* 

<t 3* If you wish to be good, first believe that 
you are bad* 

€[ 4* It is better to do wrong seldom and to 
own it, and to act right for the most part, 
than seldom to admit that you have done 
wrong and to do wrong often* 

€[ 5* Check (punish) your passions that you 
may not be punished by them* 

<t 6* Do not so much be ashamed of that 
(disgrace) which proceeds from men's opinions 
as fly from that which comes from the truth* 

€[ 7* If you wish to be well spoken of, learn 
to speak well (of others): and when you have 

57 



learned to speak well of them, try to act well, 
and so you will reap the fruit of being well 
spoken of* 

<[ 8* Freedom and slavery, the one is the 
name of virtue, and the other of vice: and both 
are acts of the wiiL But where there is no will, 
neither of them touches (affects) these things* 
But the soul is accustomed to be master of 
the body, and the things which belong to the 
body have no share in the will* For no man ia 
a slave who is free in his will* 

€[ 9* It is an evil chain, fortune (a chain) of 
the body, and vice of the soul* For he who is 
loose (free) in the body, but bound in the soul 
is a slave: but on the contrary he who is bound 
in the body, but free (unbound) in the soul, 
is free* 

<£ 10* The bond of the body is loosened by 
nature through death, and by vice through 
money: s but the bond of the soul is loosened 
by learning, and by experience and by disci- 
pline* 

d H* If you wish to live without perturbation 
and with pleasure, try to have all who dwell 
with you good* And you will have them good, 
if you instruct the willing, and dismiss those 
who are unwilling (to be taught): for there will 

1 " He does not say this * that it is bad if a man by money 
should redeem himself from bonds/ btrt he means that ' even 
a bad man, if he has money, can redeem himself from the 
bonds of the body and so secure his liberty/ " — Schweig. 

58 



fly away together with those who have fled 
away both wickedness and slavery; and there 
will be left with those who remain with yoti 
goodness and liberty. 

<[ 12* It is a shame for those who sweeten 
drink with the gifts of the bees, by badness to 
embitter reason which is the gift of the gods* 

€1 13. No man who loves money , and loves 
pleasure, and loves fame, also loves mankind; 
but only he who loves virtue* 

d 14. As you would not choose to sail in a large 
and decorated and gold-laden ship (or ship 
ornamented with gold), and to be drowned; 
so do not choose to dwell in a large and costly 
house and to be disturbed (by cares)* 

€[ 15* When we have been invited to a ban- 
quet, we take what is set before us: but if a 
guest should ask the host to set before him 
fish or sweet cakes, he would be considered 
to be an unreasonable fellow* But in the world 
we ask the Gods for what they do not give; 
and we do this though the things are many 
which they have given* 

<[ 16* They are amusing fellows, said he 
(Epictetus), who are proud of the things 
which are not in our power* A man says, I 
am better than you, for I possess much land, 
and you are wasting with hunger* Another 
says, I am of consular rank* Another says, 
I am a Procurator (eV fa pottos). Another, I have 
curly hair* But a horse does not say to a horse* 

59 



I am superior to you, for I possess much fodder, 
and much barley, and my bits are of gold and 
my harness is embroidered: but he says, I am 
swifter than you* And every animal is better 
or worse from his own merit (virtue) or his 
own badness* Is there then no virtue in man 
only? and must we look to t the hair, and our 
clothes, and to our ancestors? 

€[ 17* The sick are vexed with the physician 
who gives them no advice, and think that he 
has despaired of them* But why should they 
not have the same feeling toward the philoso- 
pher, and think that he has despaired of their 
coming to a sound state of mind, if he says 
nothing at all that is useful to a man? 

€[ 18* Those who are well constituted in the 
body endure both heat and cold: and so those 
who are well constituted in the soul endure both 
anger and grief and excessive joy and the other 
effects* 

<[ 19* Examine yourself whether you wish 
to be rich or to be happy* If you wish to be rich, 
you should know that it is neither a good thing 
nor at all in your power: but if you wish to be 
happy, you should know that it is both a good 
thing and in your power, for the one is a tem- 
porary loan of fortune, and happiness comes 
from the will* 

€1 20* As when you see a viper or an asp or a 
scorpion in an ivory or golden box, you do 
not on account of the costliness of the material 
60 



love it or think it happy, but because the nature 
of it is pernicious, you turn away from it and 
loath it; so when you shall see vice dwelling in 
wealth and in the swollen fullness of fortune, 
be not struck by the splendor of the material, 
but despise the false character of the morals* 

€[2U Wealth is not one of the good things; 
great expenditure is one of the bad; moderation 
is one of the good things* And moderation 
invites to frugality and the acquisition of good 
things: but wealth invites to great expenditure 
and draws us away from moderation* It is 
difficult then for a rich man to be moderate, 
or for a moderate man to be rich* 

<[ 22* As if you were begotten or born in a 
ship, you would not be eager to be the master 
of it, so — For neither there (in the ship) 
will the ship naturally be connected with you, 
nor wealth in the other case; but reason is 
everywhere naturally connected with you* 
As then reason is a thing which naturally be- 
longs to you and is born in you, consider this 
also as specially your own and take care of it. 

€t 23* If you had been born among the Per- 
sians, you would not have wished to live in 
Hellas (Greece), but to have lived in Persia 
happy: so if you are born in poverty, why do 
you seek to grow rich, and why do you not 
remain in poverty and be happy? 

€[ 24* As it is better to lie compressed in a 
narrow bed and be healthy than to be tossed 

61 



with disease on a broad couch, so also it is better 
to contract yourself within a small competence 
and to be happy than to have a great fortune 
and to be wretched* 

d 25* It is not poverty which produces sor- 
row, but desire; nor does wealth tt\zdi& from 
fear, but reason (the power of reasoning). If 
then you acquire this power of reasoning, you 
will neither desire wealth nor complain of 
poverty* 

d 26* Neither is a horse elated nor proud of his 
manger and trappings and coverings, nor a 
bird of his little shreds of cloth and of his nest: 
but both of them are proud of their swiftness,; 
one proud of the swiftness of the feet, and the 
other of the wings* Do you also then not be 
greatly proud of your food and dress and, in 
short, of any external things, but be proud of 
your integrity and good deeds* 

€[ 27* To live well differs from living ex- 
travagantly: for the first comes from modera- 
tion and a sufficiency and good order and pro- 
priety and frugality; but the other comes from 
intemperance and luxury and want of order 
and want of propriety* And the end (the con- 
sequence) of the one is true praise, but of the 
other blame* If then you wish to live well, 
do not seek to be commended for profuse 
expenditure* 

€[ 28* Let the measure to you of all food and 
drink be the first satisfying of the desire; and 
62 



let the food and the pleasure be the desire 
(appetite) itself: and you will neither take 
more than is necessary, nor will you want 
cooks, and you will be satisfied with the drink 
that comes in the way* 

C^ 29* Make your manner of eating neither 
luxurious nor gloomy, but lively and frugal, 
that the soul may not be perturbed through 
being deceived by the pleasures of the body, 
and that it may despise them; and that the soul 
may not be injured by the enjoyment of 
present luxury and the body may not after- 
ward suffer from disease* 

C 30* Take care that the food which you 
put into the stomach does not fatten (nourish) 
you, but the cheerfulness of the mind: for the 
food is changed into excrement, and ejected, 
and the urine also flows out at the same time; 
but the cheerfulness, even if the soul be sepa- 
rated, remains always uncorrupted* 

€[3U In banquets remember that you en- 
tertain two guests, body and soul: and what- 
ever you shall have given to the body you 
soon eject: but what you shall have given 
to the soul, you keep always* 

<[ 32* Do not mix anger with profuse ex- 
penditure and serve them up to your guests* 
Profusion which fills the body is quickly gone; 
but anger sinks into the soul and remains for a 
long time* Consider then that you be not 
transported with anger and insult your guests 

63 



at a great expense; but rather please them with 
frugality and by gentle behavior* 

€1 33* In your banquets (meals) take care that 
those who serve (your slaves) are not more 
than those who are served; for it is foolish 
for many souls (persons) to wait on a few 
couches (seats)* 

€[ 34* It is best if even in the preparations 
for a feast you take a part of the labor* and at 
the enjoyment of the food* while you are feast- 
ing* you share with those who serve the things 
which are before you* But if such behavior 
be unsuitable to the occasion* remember that 
you are served when you are not laboring 
by those who are laboring* when you are eating 
by those who are not eating* when you are 
drinking by those who are not drinking* while 
you are talking by those who are silent, while 
you are at ease by those who are under con- 
straint; and if you remember this* you will 
neither being heated with anger be guilty of 
any absurdity yourself, nor by irritating an- 
other will you cause any mischief* 

€[ 35* Quarreling and contention are every- 
where foolish, and particularly in talk over 
wine they are unbecoming: for a man who is 
drunk could not teach a man who is sober, nor 
on the other hand could a drunken man be 
convinced by a sober man* But where there 
is not sobriety, it will appear that to no purpose 
have you labored for the result of persuasion* 
64 



4[ 36* Grasshoppers (cicadas) are musical: 
snails have no voice* Snails have pleasure in 
being moist, but grasshoppers in being dry* 
Next the dew invites forth the snails, and for 
this they crawl out: but on the contrary the 
sun when he is hot, rouses the grasshoppers 
and they sing in the sun* Therefore if you wish 
to be a musical man and to harmonize well 
with others, when over the cups the soul is 
bedewed with wine, at that time do not permit 
the soul to go forth and to be polluted; but 
when in company (parties) it is fired by reason, 
then bid her to utter oracular words and to 
sing the oracles of justice* 

€L 37* Examine in three ways him who is 
talking with you, as superior, or as inferior, or 
as equal: and if he is superior, you should 
listen to him and be convinced by him: but 
if he is inferior, you should convince him; if he 
is equal, you should agree with him; and thus 
you will never be guilty of being quarrelsome* 

€[ 38* It is better by assenting to truth to 
conquer opinion, than by assenting to opinion 
to be conquered by truth* 

{[ 39* If you seek truth, you will not seek 
by every means to gain a victory; and if you 
have found truth, you will have the gain of 
not being defeated* 

4[ 40* Truth conquers with itself; but opin- 
ion conquers among those who are external* 

€[ 41. It is better to live with one free man 

65 



and to be without fear and free? than to be a 
slave with many. 

€[ 42. What you avoid suffering, do not 
attempt to make others stiffen You avoid 
slavery: take care that others are not your 
slaves. For if you endure to have a slave, 
you appear to be a slave yourself first. For 
vice has no community with virtue, nor free- 
dom with slavery. 

d 43. As he who is in health would not choose 
to be served (ministered to) by the sick, nor 
for those who dwell with him to be sick, so 
neither would a free man endure to be served 
by slaves, or for those who \ive with him to be 
slaves. 

€[ 44. Whoever you are who wish to be not 
among the number of slaves, release yourself 
from slavery: and you will be free, if you are 
released from desire. For neither Aristides 
nor Epaminondas nor Lycurgus through being 
rich and served by slaves were named the one 
just, the other a god, and the third a savior, 
but because they were poor and delivered 
Hellas (Greece) from slavery. 1 

€[ 45. If you wish your house to be well 
managed, imitate the Spartan Lycurgus. For 
as he did not fence his city with walls, but 

1 It is obser ved that the term "just" applies to Aristides % 
the term ** god n was given to Lycurgus by the Pythia or 
Delphic oracle; the name "savior "by his own citizens to 
Epaminondas. 

66 



fortified the inhabitants by virtue and pre- 
served the city always free; 1 so do you not 
cast around (your house) a large court and raise 
high towers, but strengthen the dwellers by 
good-will and fidelity and friendship, and then 
nothing harmful will enter it, not even if the 
whole band of wickedness shall array itself 
against it* 

€[ 46* Do not hang your house round with 
tablets and pictures, but decorate it with 
moderation: for the one is of a foreign (un- 
suitable) kind, and a temporary deception of 
the eyes; but the other is a natural and in- 
delible, and perpetual ornament of the house. 

€[ 47* Instead of a herd of oxen, endeavor 
to assemble herds of friends in your house* 

d 48* As a wolf resembles a dog, so both a 
flatterer, and an adulterer and a parasite, re- 
semble a friend* Take care then that instead 
of watch-dogs you do not without knowing it 
let in mischievous wolves* 

C[ 49. To be eager that your house should 
be admired by being whitened with gypsum, 
is the mark of a man who has no taste: but 
to set off (decorate) our morals by the goodness 
of our communication (social habits) is the 
mark of a man who is a lover of beauty and a 
lover of man* 

C. 50* If you begin by admiring little things; 

1 Schweig. quotes Polybius ix, J0 t J, u a city is not adorned 
by eternal things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in OP 

67 



you will not be thought worthy of great things: 
bat if you despise the little, you will be greatly 
admired* 

€[ 5J# Nothing is smaller (meaner) than love 
of pleasure, and love of gain and pride* Nothing 
is superior to magnanimity, and gentleness, 1 
and love of mankind, and beneficence* 

d 52* They bring forward (they name, they 
mention) the peevish philosophers (the Stoics), 
whose opinion it is that pleasure is not a thing 
conformable to nature, but is a thing which 
is consequent on the things which are conform- 
able to nature, as justice, temperance, freedom* 
What then? is the soul pleased and made tran- 
quil by the pleasures of the body which are 
smaller, as Epicurus says; and is it not pleased 
with its own good things, which are the great- 
est? And indeed nature has given to me 
modesty, and I blush much when I think of 
saying anything base (indecent)* This motion 
(feeling) does not permit me to make (con- 
sider) pleasure the good and the end (purpose) 
of life* 

€1 53* In Rome the women have in their 
hands Plato's Polity (the Republic), because it 
allows (advises) the women to be common, for 
they attend only to the words of Plato, not 
to his meaning* Now he does not recommend 
marriage and one man to cohabit with one 
woman, and then that the women should be 
common: but he takes away such a marriage, 
68 



and introduces another kind of marriage* 
And in fine, men are pleased with finding 
excuses for their faults* Yet philosophy says 
that we ought not to stretch out even a finger 
without a reason* 

€[ 54* Of pleasures those which occur most 
rarely give the greatest delight* 

€[ 55* If a man should transgress moderation* 
the things which give the greatest delight 
would become the things which give the least* 

<[ 56* It is just to commend Agrippinus for 
this reason, that though he was a man of the 
highest worth, he never praised himself; but 
even if another person praised him, he would 
blush* And he was such a man (Epictetus 
said) that he would write in praise of anything 
disagreeable that befell him; if it was a fever, 
he would write of a fever; if he was disgraced, 
he would write of disgrace; if he were banished, 
of banishment* And on one occasion (he men- 
tioned) when he was going to dine, a mes- 
senger brought him news that Nero commanded 
him to go into banishment; on which Agrip- 
pinus said, ] Well then we will dine at Aricia* 1 

d 57. Diogenes said that no labor was good, 
unless the end (purpose) of it was courage and 
strength of the soul, but not of the body* 

€[ 58* As a true balance is neither corrected 
by a true balance nor judged by a false balance, 
so also a just judge is neither corrected by just 

69 



judges nor is he judged (condemned) by unjust 
judges* 

<[ 59. As that which is straight does not 
need that which is straight, so neither does the 
just need that which is just. 

€[ 60. Do not give judgment in one court 
(of justice) before you have been tried your- 
self before justice. 

C^6i.If you wish to make your judgments 
just, listen not to (regard not) any of those 
who are parties (to the suit), nor to those who 
plead in it, but listen to justice itself. 

C[ 62. You will fail (stumble) least in your 
judgments, if you yourself fail (stumble) least 
in your life. 

€[ 63. It is better when you judge justly to 
be blamed undeservedly by him who has been 
condemned than when you judge unjustly 
to be justly blamed by (before) nature. 

C[ 64. As the stone which tests the gold is 
not at all tested itself by the gold, so it is with 
him who has the faculty of judging. 

<[ 65. It is shameful for the judge to be judged 
by others. 

C, 66. As nothing is straighter than that 
which is straight, so nothing is juster than that 
which is just. 

€[ 67. Who among us does not admire the 
act of Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian? For after 
he was maimed in one of his eyes by one of 
the citizens, and the young man was delivered 

70 



tip to him by the people that he might punish 
him as he chose, Lycurgus spared him: and 
after instructing him and making him a good 
man he brought him into the theatre* When 
the Lacedaemonians expressed their surprise, 
Lycurgus said, I received from you this youth 
when he was insolent and violent: I restore 
him to you gentle and a good citizen* 

€[ 68* Pittacus after being wronged by a 
certain person and having the power of punish- 
ing him, let him go, saying, Forgiveness is 
better than revenge: for forgiveness is the sign 
of a gentle nature, but revenge the sign of a 
savage nature* 1 

€[ 69* But before everything this is the act 
of nature to bind together and to fit together 
the movement toward the appearance of that 
which is becoming (fit) and useful* 

€[ 70* To suppose that we shall be easily 
despised by others, if we do not in every way 
do some damage to those who first show us 
their hostility, is the mark of very ignoble and 
foolish men: for (thus) we affirm that the man 
is considered to be contemptible because of 
his inability to do what is good (useful)* 

€1 71* When you are attacking (or going to 
attack) any person violently and with threats, 

Pittacus was one of the seven wise men, as they are 
named* Some authorities state that he lived in the seventh 
century B# C* By this maxim he anticipated one of the 
Christian doctrines by six centuries* 

71 



remember to say to yourself first; that you 
are (by nature) mild (gentle); and if you do 
nothing savage, you will continue to live with- 
out repentance and without blame* 

€[ 72* A man ought to know that it is not 
easy for him to have an opinion (or fixed 
principle), if he does not daily say the same 
things, and hear the same things, and at the 
same time apply them to life* 

<[ 73* [Nicias was so fond of labor (assiduous) 
that he often asked his slaves, if he had bathed 
and if he had dined*] 

<[ 74* [The slaves of Archimedes used to 
drag him by force from his table of diagrams 
and anoint him; and Archimedes would then 
draw his figures on his own body when it had 
been anointed*] 

<£ 75* [Lampis the shipowner being asked 
how he acquired his wealth, answered, "With 
no difficulty, my great wealth; but my small 
wealth (my first gains), with much labor*] 

€1 76* Solon having been asked by Periander 
over their cups {irapa ttotov), since he happened 
to say nothing, Whether he was silent for want 
of words or because he was a fool, replied: 
No fool is able to be silent over his cups* 

41 77* Attempt on every occasion to provide 
for nothing so much as that which is safe: for 
silence is safer than speaking* And omit 
speaking whatever is without sense and rea- 
son* 
72 



{[ 78* As the fire-lights in harbors by a few 
pieces of dry wood raise a great flame and give 
sufficient help to ships which are wandering 
on the sea; so also an illustrious man in a 
state which is tempest-tossed, while he is him- 
self satisfied with a few things, does great 
services to his citizens* 

€[ 79* As if you attempted to manage a ship, 
you would certainly learn completely the 
steersman's art, [so if you would administer 
a state, learn the art of managing a state]* 
For it will be in your power, as in the first case, 
to manage the whole ship, so in the second 
case also to manage the whole state* 

€[ 80* If you propose to adorn your city by the 
dedication of offerings (monuments), first 
dedicate to yourself (decorate yourself with) 
the noblest offering of gentleness and justice 
and beneficence* 

CL 81* You will do the greatest services to 
the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the 
houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is 
better that great souls should dwell in small 
houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great 
houses* 

€1 82* Do not decorate the walls of your 
house with the valuable stones from Euboea and 
Sparta; but adorn the minds (breasts) of the 
citizens and of those who administer the state 
with the instruction which comes from Hellas 
(Greece)* For states are well governed by the 

73 



wisdom (judgment) of men, but not by stone 
and wood* 1 

€[ 83, As, if you wished to breed lions, you 
would not care about the costliness of their 
dens, btrt about the habits of the animals; 
so, if you attempt to preside over your citizens, 
be not so anxious about the costliness of the 
buildings as careful about the manly character 
of those who dwell in them* 

€[ 84* 2 As a skilful horse-trainer does not feed 
(only) the good colts and allow to starve those 
who are disobedient to the rein, but he feeds 
both alike, and chastises the one more and 
forces him to be equal to the other: so also a 
careful man and one who is skilled in political 
power, attempts to treat well those citizens 
who have a good character, but does not will 
that those who are of a contrary character 
should be ruined at once; and he in no manner 
grudges both of them their food, but he teaches 
and urges on with more vehemence him who 
resists reason and law* 

€[ 85* As a goose is not frightened by cackling 
nor a sheep by bleating, so let not the clamor 
of a senseless multitude alarm you* 

€[ 86* As a multitude, when they without 

1 The marbles of Carystus in Euboea and the marbles of 
Taenarum near Sparta were used by the Romans* and per- 
haps by the Greeks also, for architectural decoration* 

2 This fragment contains a lesson for the administration of 
a state* The good must be protected, and the bad must be 
Improved by discipline and punishment* 

74 



reason demand of you anything of your own, 
do not disconcert you, so do not be moved from 
your purpose even by a rabble when they 
unjustly attempt to move you. 

<[ 87* What is due to the state pay as quickly 
as you can, and you will never be asked for 
that which is not due* 

d 88* As the sun does not wait for prayers 
and incantations to be induced to rise, but 
immediately shines and is saluted by all: so do 
you also not wait for clappings of hands, and 
shouts and praise to be induced to do good, 
but be a doer of good voluntarily, and you 
will be beloved as much as the sun* 

d 89* Neither should a ship rely on one small 
anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope* 

C[ 90* We ought to stretch our legs and 
stretch our hopes only to that which is possible* 

C[ 91* When Thales was asked what is most 
universal, he answered, Hope, for hope stays 
with those who have nothing else* 

d 92* It is more necessary to heal the soul 
than the body, for to die is better than to lead 
a bad life* 

C. 93* Pyrrho used to say that there is no 
difference between dying and living: and a man 
said to him, Why then do you not die? Pyrrho 
replied, Because there is no difference* 

C[ 94* 1 Admirable is nature, and, as Xenophon 

1 Compare Xenophon* Memorab* U 4, J7. The body is 
here, and elsewhere in Epictetus, considered as an instrument* 

75 



says, a lover of animated beings* The body 
then, which is of all things the most unpleasant 
and the most foul (dirty), we love and take care 
of; for if we were obliged for five days only 
to take care of our neighbors body, we should 
not be able to endure it* Consider then what 
a thing it would be to rise in the morning and 
rub the teeth of another, and after doing some 
of the necessary offices to wash those parts* 
In truth it is wonderful that we love a thing 
to which we perform such services every day* 
I fill this bag, and then I empty it; ■ what is 
more troublesome? But I must act as the ser- 
vant of God* For this reason I remain (here), 
and I endure to wash this miserable body, to 
feed it and to clothe it* But when I was younger, 
God imposed on me also another thing, and I 
submitted to it* Why then do you not submit, 
when Nature who has given us this body takes 
it away? I love the body, you may say. Well, 
as I said just now, Nature gave you also this 

'which, another uses who is not the body ; and that which so 
uses the body must be something which is capable of using the 
body and a power which possesses what we name intelligence 
and consciousness* Our bodies, as Bishop Butler says, are 
what we name matter, and differ from other matter only in 
being more closely connected with us than other matter. It 
would be easy to pass from these notions to the notion that 
this intelligence and power, or to use a common word, the 
soul, is something which exists independent of the body, 
though we only know the soul while it acts within and on 
the body, and by the body. 

1 This bag is the body, or that part of it which holds the 
food which is taken into the mouth* 

76 



love of the body: but Nature says, Leave it 
now, and have no more trouble (with it)* 

<[ 95* When a man dies young, he blames the 
gods* When he is old and does not die f he 
blames the gods because he suffers when he 
ought to have already ceased from suffering* 
And nevertheless, when death approaches, he 
wishes to live, and sends to the physician and 
entreats him to omit no care or trouble* Won- 
derful, he said, are men, who are neither willing 
to live nor to die* 

C 96* To the longer life and the worst, the 
shorter life, 3 if it is better, ought by all means 
to be preferred* 

<t 97* When we are children our parents 
deliver us to a pedagogue to take care on all 
occasions that we suffer no harm. But when 
we are become men, God delivers us to our 
innate conscience to take care of us* This 
guardianship then we must in no way despise, 
for we shall both displease God and be enemies 
to our own conscience* 

€1 98* [We ought to use wealth as the material 
for some act, not for every act alike*] 

€1 99* [Virtue then should be desired by all 
men more than wealth which is dangerous to 
the foolish; for the wickedness of men is in- 
creased by wealth* And the more a man is 
without sense, the more violent is he in excess, 
for he has the means of satisfying his mad 
desire for pleasures*! 

77 



€[ 100* What we ought not to do, we should not 
even think of doing* 

€1 101. Deliberate much before saying or 
doing anything, for you will not have the 
power of recalling what has been said or done. 

C 102. Every place is safe to him who lives 
with justice. 

<[ 103. Crows devour the eyes of the dead, 
when the dead have no longer need of them. 
But flatterers destroy the souls of the living 
and blind their eyes. 

€£ 104. The anger of an ape and the threats 
of a flatterer should be considered as the same. 

C[ 105. Listen to those who wish to advise 
what is useful, but not to those who are eager 
to flatter on all occasions; for the first really 
see what is useful, but the second look to that 
which agrees with the opinion of those who 
possess power, and imitating the shadows of 
bodies they assent to what is said by the power- 
ful. 

C[ J 06. The man who gives advice ought first 
to have regard to the modesty and character 
(reputation) of those whom he advises; for 
those who have lost the capacity of blushing are 
incorrigible. 

€[ 107. To admonish is better than to re- 
proach: for admonition is mild and friendly, 
but reproach is harsh and insulting; and ad- 
monition corrects those who are doing wrong, 
but reproach only convicts them. 
78 



€1 108* Give of what you have to strangers 
and to those who have need: for he who gives 
not to him who wants, will not receive himself 
when he wants* 

<[ 109* A pirate had been cast on the land and 
was perishing through the tempest* A man 
took clothing and gave it to him t and brought 
the pirate into his house, and supplied him 
with everything else that was necessary* When 
the man was reproached by a person for doing 
kindness to the bad, he replied, I have shown 
this regard not to the man, but to man- 
kind* 

€[ HO* A man should choose (pursue) not 
every pleasure, but the pleasure which leads to 
goodness* 

<£ HI* It is the part of a wise man to resist 
pleasures, but of a foolish man to be a slave 
to them* 

€[ H2* Pleasure, like a kind of bait; is thrown 
before (in front of) everything which is really 
bad, and easily allures greedy souls to the 
hook of perdition* 

€[ U3* Choose rather to punish your appetites 
than to be punished through them* 

C[ H4* No man is free who is not master of 
himself* 

€[ H5* The vine^bears three bunches of grapes: 
the first is that of pleasure, the second of 
drunkenness, the third of violence* 

€[ II 6* Over your wine do not talk much to 

79 



display your learning; for you will utter bilious 
stuff. 

€[ U7* He is intoxicated who drinks more 
than three cups: and if he is not intoxi- 
cated, he has exceeded moderation* 

€1118* Let your talk of God be renewed every 
day, rather than your food* 

<[ 119* Think of God more frequently than 
you breathe* 

€[ 120* If you always remember that what- 
ever you are doing in the soul or in the body* 
God stands by as an inspector, you will never 
err (do wrong) in all your prayers and in all 
your acts, but you will have God dwelling 
with you* 

<[ 121* As it is pleasant to see the sea from 
the land, so it is pleasant for him who has 
escaped from troubles to think of them* 

€[ 122* Law intends indeed to do service to 
human life, but it is not able when men do 
not choose to accept her services; for it is 
only in those who are obedient to her that she 
displays her special virtue* 

€1 123* As to the sick physicians are as saviors, 
so to those also who are wronged are the laws* 

C[ 124* The justest laws are those which are 
the truest* 

€[ 125* To yield to law and to a magistrate 
and to him who is wiser than yourself, is be- 
coming* 

d 126* The things which are done contrary 
80 



to law are the same as things which are not 
done* 

€[ 127* In prosperity it is very easy to find 
a friend; btrt in adversity it is most difficult 
of all things* 

<[ 128* Time relieves the foolish from sorrow, 
btrt reason relieves the wise* 

4[ 129* Ke is a wise man who does not grieve 
for the things which he has not* btrt rejoices 
for those which he has* 

€[ 130* Epictetus being asked how a man 
should give pain to his enemy answered* By 
preparing himself to live the best life that he 
can* 

d 131* Let no wise man be averse to tinder- 
taking the office of a magistrate: for it is both 
impious for a man to withdraw himself from 
being useful to those who have need of our 
services* and it is ignoble to give way to the 
worthless; for it is foolish to prefer being 
ill-governed to governing well* 

€[ 132* Nothing is more becoming to him 
who governs than to despise no man and not 
show arrogance, btrt to preside over all with 
equal care* 

€[ 133* [In poverty any man lives (can live) 
happily* but very seldom in wealth and power* 
The value of poverty excels so much that no 
just man would exchange poverty for disrepu- 
table wealth* unless indeed the richest of the 
Athenians, Themistocles* the son of Neocles, 

81 



was better than Aristides and Socrates, though 
he was poor in virtue* Bat the wealth of Them- 
istocles and Themistocles himself have perished 
and have left no name* For all things die with 
death in a bad man, but the good is eternal*] 

€[ 134* Remember that such was, and is, and 
will be the nature of the universe, and that 
it is not possible that the things which come 
into being can come into being otherwise than 
they do now; and that not only men have 
participated in this change and transmutation, 
and all other living things which are on the 
earth, but also the things which are divine* 
And indeed the very four elements are changed 
and transmuted up and down, and earth be- 
comes water and water becomes air, and the 
air again is transmuted into other things, and 
the same manner of transmutation takes place 
from above to below. If a man attempts to 
turn his mind toward these thoughts, and to 
persuade himself to accept with willingness 
that which is necessary, he will pass through 
life with complete moderation and harmony* 

€[ 135* He who is dissatisfied with things 
present and what is given by fortune is an 
ignorant man in life: but he who bears them 
nobly and rationally and the things which 
proceed from them is worthy of being con- 
sidered a good man* 

41 136* All things obey and serve the world 
(the universe), earth and sea and sun and the 
82 



rest of the stars, and the plants of earth and 
animals* And oar body obeys it also both in 
disease and in health when it (the universe) 
chooses, both in youth and in age, and when 
it is passing through the other changes* What 
is reasonable then and in our power is this, 
for our judgment not to be the only thing which 
resists it (the universe): for it is strong and 
superior, and it has determined better about 
us by administering (governing) us also to- 
gether with the whole* And besides, this 
opposition also is unreasonable and does noth- 
ing more than cause us to be tormented uselessly 
and to fall into pain and sorrow* 

The fragments which follow are in part 
assigned to Epictetus, in part to others* 

€1 137* Contentment, as it is a short road and 
pleasant, has great delight and little trouble* 

C^38, Fortify yourself with contentment, for 
this is an impregnable fortress* 

C£ 139* Let nothing be valued more than truth: 
not even selection of a friendship which lies 
without the influence of the effects, by which 
(effects) justice is both confounded (disturbed) 
and darkened. 

d 140* Truth is a thing immortal and per- 
petual, and it gives to us a beauty which fades 
not away in time nor does it take away the 
freedom of speech which proceeds from justice; 
but it gives to us the knowledge of what is 

83 



just and lawful, separating from them the 
unjust and refuting them* 

€1 141* We should not have either a blunt 
knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-man- 
aged* 

€[ 142* Nature has given to men one tongue, 
but two ears, that we may hear from others 
twice as much as we speak* 

€1 143* Nothing really pleasant or unpleasant 
subsists by nature, but all things become so 
through habit (custom)* 

<[ 144* Choose the best life, for custom (habit) 
will make it pleasant* 

4[ 145* Be careful to leave your sons well 
instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of 
the instructed are better than the wealth of 
the ignorant* 

<[ 146* A daughter is a possession to her 
father which is not his own* 

4[ 147* The same person advised to leave 
modesty to children rather than gold* 

€1 148* The reproach of a father is agreeable 
medicine, for it contains more that is useful 
than it contains of that which gives pain* 

€[ 149* He who has been lucky in a son-in- 
law has found a son: but he who has been 
unlucky, has lost also a daughter* 

€1 150* The value of education (knowledge) 
like that of gold is valued in every place* 

€[ 15 J. He who exercises wisdom exercises 
the knowledge which is about God* 
84 



€[ 152* Nothing among animals is so beau- 
tiful as a man adorned by learning (knowl- 
edge)* 

€1 153* We ought to avoid the friendship of 
the bad and the enmity of the good* 

€1 154* The necessity of circumstances proves 
friends and detects enemies* 

€[ 155. When our friends are present, we 
ought to treat them well; and when they are 
absent, to speak of them well* 

d 156* Let no man think that he is loved by 
any man when he loves no man* 

C[ 157* You ought to choose both physician 
and friend not the most agreeable, but the most 
useful* 

C[ 158* If you wish to live a life free from 
sorrow, think of what is going to happen as 
if it had already happened* 

C[ 159* Be free from grief not through in- 
sensibility like the irrational animals, nor 
through want of thought like the foolish, but 
like a man of virtue by having reason as the 
consolation of grief* 

€L 160* Whoever are least disposed in mind 
by calamities, and in act struggle most against 
them, these are the best men in states and in 
private life* 

€[ 161* Those who have been instructed* like 
those who have been trained in the palaestra, 
though they may have fallen* rise again from 
their misfortune quickly and skilfully* 

85 



C[ 162* We ought to call in reason like a 
good physician as a help in misfortune. 

€£ 163* A fool having enjoyed good fortune 
like intoxication to a great amount becomes 
more foolish* 

€[ 164* Envy is the antagonist of the fortunate* 

C. 165* He who bears in mind what man is 
will never be troubled at anything which 
happens* 

C, 166* For making a good voyage a pilot 
(master) and wind are necessary: and for hap- 
piness, reason and art* 

€[ 167* We should enjoy good fortune while 
we have it* like the fruits of autumn* 

4[ 168* He is unreasonable who is grieved 
(troubled) at the things which happen from 
the necessity of nature* 



SOME FRAGMENTS OF EPICTETUS OMITTED 
BY UPTON AND BY MEEBOMIUS 

d 169* Of the things which are* God has put 
some of them in our power, and some he has 
not* In our own power he has placed that 
which is the best and the most important, 
that indeed through which he himself is happy, 
the use of appearances* For when the use is 
rightly employed, there is freedom, happiness, 
tranquillity, constancy: and this is also justice 
and law, and temperance, and every virtue* 
But all other things he has not placed in our 

86 



power* Wherefore we also ought to be of one 
mind with God, and making this division of 
things, to look after those which are in our 
power; and of the things not in our power, 
to intrust them to the Universe, and whether 
it should require our children, or our country, 
or our body, or anything else, willingly to give 
them up* 1 

€1 170* When a young man was boasting 
in the theatre and saying, I am wise, for I 
have conversed with many wise men; Epictetus 
said, I also have conversed with many rich 
men, but I am not rich* 

€[i7U The same person said, It is not good 
for him who has been well taught to talk among 
the untaught, as it is not right for him who 
is sober to talk among those who are drunk* 

€[ 172* Epictetus being asked, What man is 
rich, answered, He who is content (who has 
enough)* 

€1 173* Xanthippe was blaming Socrates, be- 
cause he was making small preparation for 
receiving his friends: but Socrates said, If they 
are our friends, they will not care about it; 
and if they are not, we shall care nothing about 
them* 

d 174* When Archelaus was sending for Soc- 
rates to make him rich, Socrates told the mes- 

1 This is a valuable fragment, and I think* a genuine 
fragment of Epictetus* There is plainly a defect in the text* 
which Schweighaeuser has judiciously supplied* 

87 



sengers to return this answer: At Athens four 
measures (choenices) of meal are sold for one 
obolus (the sixth of a drachme), and the foun- 
tains run with water: if what I have is not 
enough (sufficient) for me, yet I am sufficient 
for what I have, and so it becomes sufficient for 
me* Do you not see that it was with no nobler 
voice that Polus acted the part of (Edipus as 
king than of (Edipus as a wanderer and beggar 
at Colonus? Then shall the good man appear 
to be inferior to Polus, and unable to act well 
every character (personage) imposed on him 
by the Deity? and shall he not imitate Ulysses, 
who even in rags made no worse figure than in 
the soft purple robe? 

€[ 175* What do I care, he (Epictetus) says, 
whether all things are composed of atoms, or 
of similar parts of fire and earth? for is it not 
enough to know the nature of the good and 
the evil, and the measures of the desires and 
the aversions, and also the movements toward 
things and from them; and using these as rules 
to administer the affairs of life, but not to 
trouble ourselves about the things above us? 
For these things are perhaps incomprehensible 
to the human mind: and if any man should 
even suppose them to be in the highest degree 
comprehensible, what then is the profit of them, 
if they are comprehended? And must we not 
say that those men have needless trouble who 
assign these things as necessary to the phil- 
88 



osopher's discourse? Is then also the precept 
written at Delphi superfluous, which is Know 
thyself? It is not so, he says* What then is 
the meaning of it? If a man gave to a choreutes 
(member of chorus) the precept to know him- 
self, would he not have observed in the pre- 
cept that he must direct his attention to 
himself? 

d 176* You are a little soul carrying a dead 
body, as Epictetus said* 

<[ 177* He (Epictetus) said that he had dis- 
covered an art in giving assent; and in the topic 
(matter) of the movements he had discovered 
that we must observe attention, that the 
movements be subject to exception,- that they 
be social, that they be according to the worth 
of each thing; and that we ought to abstain 
entirely from desire, and to employ aversion 
to none of the things which are not in our 
power* 

€[ 178* About no common thing, he said, 
the contest (dispute) is, but about being mad 
or not. 



89 



% 



b 






A***. •. 












«5°«* -I 



* v "* z Wk3^* ^v »Wf^ : a v ** 



^o* 










iP "O. 






r Vj 








^ * 




**o« 



* a q* 







'•• .«? <W V«r«* . * 




"\tf 






^o 1 

V 



.•flto \„/ .%&«& v* .-Jfe-- 



4* A> 




• -.^fc* «/ * -ray ^ *> ••?wc- 







fir. **o« :fl^»- W 



^q 






"' * " '* W ^' - ^ 



